I Solemly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
by ComatoseButterfly
Summary: A Marauders fanfiction about their first years at Hogwarts - so basically inventing the map, studying Animagi, James' little crush on Lily and, of course, making fun of Severus Snape. Thanks to everyone whose read and reviewed this. :3 -Cancelled-
1. Remus Lupin

1 Remus Lupin

Our story begins at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in September 1971, where 4 young wizards are about to start their first year of secondary school. Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and James Potter were 4 young boys whose lives, from the day they met, seemed to revolve around each other, as if their destinies had been sewn together by fate. So lets take you back in time to the days long before the ones you know of the Wizarding World, to one nearly 30 years prior - The story of the 4 boys who called themselves The Marauders.

Remus Lupin sat at the back of the Hogwarts Express, staring out of the bleak window, a giant smile filled with excitement on his face. Never before had Remus Lupin been allowed to go to school, or anywhere near other children, after he was bitten by Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Thankfully, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, made some arrangements to make sure that Remus would be able to attend Hogwarts as an ordinary wizard. His parents were so proud when they heard he could go - but he hoped these "arrangements" would be safe to the other students, as he didn't want to let his parents down, who were reluctant to send him to school in the first place. He had to make sure he didn't let them down - he was determined to.

As the bright scarlet train steadied to a halt, Remus quickly gathered his things and got out of the compartment he was sat in, but smashed face to face with a black haired boy with glasses.

"S-sorry, wasn't watching where i was going..." Remus stammered, blushing slightly. the boy, however, didn't seem hurt at all. Instead, Remus saw him smile in return.

"Calm down, mate, I'm fine!" The boy slapped him on the back with a friendly smile.

"Anyways, keep moving, I can't wait to see this castle thing we're all making a fuss about."

The two boys got off the train and were greeted by a giant with a big, bushy black beard. "Righ', everyone, follow me, you don' wan' t' get lost on your way in. I'm 'Agrid, the gameskeeper, and i don' suppose Dumbledore'll be 'appy if half his students don' turn up, now, so keep it movin'." The giant walked towards a big lake, leading to the most magnificent castle Remus had ever seen - although, he had to admit, he hadn't seen many. They all got on the boats in groups of 4, and Remus was accompanied by the dark-haired boy, another, taller dark-haired boy who was chomping down a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and a smaller, sandy haired, pudgy boy trying to fish out a chocolate frog that had fallen into the river. Even though he was a wizard, Remus had never seen anything like the sweets these boys seemed to have stuffed into their pockets, as he had lived most of his life exiled away from anyone but his parents for being "unsafe". He felt a little sad inside that he had been missing out on all of this.

As the boats pulled to a halt at the end of the river, Hagrid helped everyone out of their boats and led them towards the front of the castle. They went up a flight of stairs and were greeted by a middle-aged man with auburn-and-grey hair, slightly wrinkled skin, and a broad smile spread across his face like butter. "Good evening, boys and girls. I am Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before you enter the Great Hall-" He motioned to the big doors behind him, "I would like to inform you of what is going to happen. Before the feast starts, each of you will stand in rows facing the hat that is on the stool you will see. When your name is called out, you will step forward and place the hat on your head. It will tell you the house you are in, and you will go and sit at that corresponding table. Is that clear?"

A few yeses and nods appeared around the hallway.

"Then, you may enter."

They did as Dumbledore had told them to, and stood facing a ragged hat with a small rip at the front. Dumbledore held up a long list of names, and began calling people out.

"Jonathan Applefeather-" A short boy stood up and sat on the stool, placing the hat on his head. Suddenly, the rip started to move, and a voice began to come from it, contemplating where Jonathan would go, when at last, it shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"

there were many cheers from the table surrounded by students wearing blue-rimmed robes as Jonathan sat with them - they appeared to be Ravenclaw house.

"Marissa Addellsby-" went into the yellow table, Hufflepuff, while "Connor Beakstone" joined the green table, Slytherin. Next, "Sirius Black" was called out, and the tall boy Remus sat with on the boat was put into the red house, Gryffindor. "Lily Evans", a fair-skinned, red-haired girl joined Gryffindor, also. Soon, "Remus Lupin" was called out, and Remus sat on the chair and placed the hat on his head.

"Aah, lots of bravery, in here, yes, nice mind too... quite the ferocious beast, at times, as well, aren't we, sonnie? A nice balance of the houses, but one of them shines above all... your determination to overcome your evil side and that, my boy, shows bravery. yes, of course, it has to be... GRYFFINDOR!" Remus made his way over to the Gryffindor table, next to Sirius Black and Lily Evans, who all became deep in conversation about what would be happening at this new school. Lily Evans, who was Muggle-born(non-magical parents), was eager to know what spells they'd be learning.

Soon they were halfway down the list.

"Peter Pettigrew-" The pudgy boy stood up and made his way towards the hat, moments later to join Gryffindor with Sirius and Remus. Next was "James Potter-", the boy who Remus had banged into on their way out of the Hogwarts train. He was also placed in Gryffindor, to which Sirius and Peter high-fived him and cheered. Lily Evans seemed to be interested in what they were excited about, however upon her asking, all 3 tapped their noses secretively in unison. Lily rolled her eyes and stated she didn't care anyway, to which James replied, "Getting all touchy, are we, Evans?" and continually poked fun of her until she told him to shut it, as "Severus Snape-", a long-black-greasy-haired, hard-faced boy was being sorted into Slytherin house.

"Aww, I really hoped he'd be in our house. Although I'm sure he'll have lots of fun in Slytherin." Lily began saying to herself.

"Have fun in Slytherin? No wizard whose gone bad hasn't been in Slytherin. Didn't you know? You-Know-Who was a Slytherin too." James laughed.

"Well, that doesn't mean to say every wizard in Slytherin house goes bad. I'm sure he'll be fine." Lily reassured herself.

"How do you know him, Lily?" Remus asked her, putting his hand over James' mouth to stop him saying anything else rude toward Severus Snape.

"Oh, I met him when we were children. My sister, Petunia, was calling me a freak, and Severus appeared and told her to back off. Ever since then he's been my friend. He's the only one who understands me, really. My parents are proud, yes, but it's not like they know what being a wizard and despised by your sister is like."

"That was very touching, Lily." James fake-sniffed, pretending to wipe tears out of his eyes and then laughing with Sirius and Peter. Lily just rolled her eyes again and began a conversation with a freckled girl named Cordinia Snufflebee.

Once the sorting had ended, each house was led by their prefects to their dormitories. Each house common room had a password, and Gryffindor common room was blocked by a painting of a plump lady in a beautiful pink dress. "Password." the she called, to which a lot of the Muggle-born's jumped and began gossiping about the surrounding paintings, which also seemed to interact and move.

"Bustletuft." replied a blonde-haired girl named Ocean Clearmist. The painting suddenly turned, to reveal a small passage hole, through which each student crawled through. Peter Pettigrew seemed to have a problem getting through the tight hole, however, and Ocean went to find Professor Dumbledore to get permission for an Expanding Charm on the hole. Once they were all safely inside the common room, James, Sirius and an embarrassed Peter walked towards Remus.

"Hey, your Lupin, right?" James started.

"Y-yeah, Remus Lupin..."

"Well, me and my fellows here are starting a new group of mischievousness, and calling it "The Marauders", and of course we heard your very smart, which none of us are..." All 3 pulled a dumb face and slapped their forehead, "So, care to be the brains of our awesome trouble-making group?"

Remus had never had friends before, and, although "mischievousness" and "trouble-making" were what Remus was initially looking for in friends, he had to admit these 3 boys seemed like the right kind to be friends with, esspecially given his "condition". He supposed after a few months he might be able to tell them about it - they'd probably find it pretty cool.

"S-sure, I'd love to!"

"Awesome!" James smiled, "C'mon, lets put our stuff in the dorms and get some early sleep - We'll have our first meeting at the crack of dawn in the common rooms, so make sure your up - we don't want to have to wake you by force, but we will if necessary." The three set off towards the dorms, Remus in tow, and began to tuck themselves into bed. Remus couldn't wait until morning - his first ever group of friends, his first ever meeting, all in his first ever school! He was so overcome with joy he fell asleep almost instantly. His parents were going to be so proud he'd made friends.


	2. James Potter

2 James Potter

James Potter awoke to find himself incredibly cold. It was only September, it couldn't have suddenly gone cold already. He sat up, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and reached out and felt for his glasses on the bedside table - only they weren't there. And neither was his scarlet Gryffindor quilt. James looked around, but there was no (blurry) sign of either his quilt or glasses, however, he was sure he heard something in the distance. What sounded like a very nasal cruel cackling sound echoed its way back through the halls to the Gryffindor dormitories, up into James' ears. His sight was too blurred to see all that much, thanks to someone that had stolen his glasses, leaving him pretty much almost sightless, but he managed to feel his way over to where his friend, Sirius Black, was sleeping.

"Oi, Sirius!" He half-whispered, half-shouted in Sirius' ear. Sirius yawned and rubbed his eyes, still partially asleep.

"M-mum?" he stuttered.

"Yes, Sirius, its your bloody Mum, at Hogwarts."

Sirius quickly opened his eyes upon recognizing James' voice.

"Morning."

"Sirius, you have to help me, my quilt and glasses have been stolen. You didn't see one of them dirty scum Slytherins in here last night, did you?"

"No, I don't think so. Do you think it was one of the ghosts? It could have been the Bloody Baron - he's a Slytherin ghost."

"I heard the Bloody Baron's quite a loud man, though. Plus, I think when I woke up I heard someone laughing - no, cackling across the halls. The Bloody Baron isn't really one to cackle, is he?"

"Really?" He paused for a moment in thought, then added, "I guess he isn't that sort of person. I pictured him having more of an Evil Santa laugh. Hey, I know! It could've been Peeves the Poltergeist, one of the prefects was talking about them getting him exorcised out of here, but it was too risky as anyone can be in league with You-Know-Who these days, and Excorcists are quite shady as it is. So yeah, I bet it was Peeves. Now if thats all you need from my wonderfully brilliant - and very sleepy - brain, then good night."

Sirius tried to lie down again, but James grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back up with so much force Sirius nearly went flying.

"Uh, what now, James?" Sirius moaned, "One question per day or I'm feeing you 50 Galleons."

"Are you blinking mad? Are you bonkers? Are you-"

"I may or may not be all of those things."

"Ugh... Sirius! I'm not going to face a ghost on my own! Are you mad? Get up, you great lump, and help me get my stuff back, I can't see very well and you're going to guide me to where Peeves' cackle is coming from, or I'll drag you out there myself, and unless you get up now, you will be very injured when this day is up!"

With that warning, Sirius quickly (although reluctantly) got out of bed, and Sirius dragged James to where James thought the cackling was coming from.

However, to their surprise, as soon as they managed to sneak out of the Gryffindor common room, a huge translucent-silver figure swooped over there heads, cackling madly, and James was sure this was the same laugh he'd heard earlier.

"Good luck, you ickle firsties!" It said in a very nasal voice. "You'll never get into Myrtle's bathroom unless you polyjuice yourself into a girly."

He roared with cackling laughter and zoomed off around the Castle.

"Is that Peeves?" James asked Sirius.

"That's Peeves, alright. The most distinguishable and annoying laugh in the history of Hogwarts."

Sirius and James ran over to where he had come from - The Girls Bathroom. It was completely flooded, all around the hallway as well, and James thought that was because of Peeves, until he heard a soft crying coming from the bathroom. James tried to open the door(or, at least grabbed where he thought the handle was), until Sirius stopped him.

"Are you mad? Thats a _girls_ bathroom, James!"

"My stuff could be in there, Sirius!"

"Then we'll go and get breakfast, then when a _girl_ wakes up, we ask her to get your stuff. You go in there and your life will be over." Sirius sighed dramatically, and did an equally dramatic example of James entering the room and dying (with many disturbing sound effects James would have preferred not to hear).

"Sirius, I know that sounds like a great plan from _your_ point of view, but you can't be leading me around all day. I'll just be really quiet, no one's even up yet but her, and I'll bet she won't even notice me."

After much protesting, Sirius allowed James to enter the bathroom, and he began searching for where his stuff could be, but he couldn't see or feel any sign of it(not that it was easy when he could barely see anything at all).

"Bloody hell..." James said to himself, forgetting the cubicle beside him was in use, and the crying had seemed to stop.

"Whose there?" A high-pitched voice half-demanded, half-sobbed.

"I'm really sorry, but... uh... well, you see, Peeves seems to have put some of my stuff in here, and I kind of need it back, because I can't really see all that well right now."

"You mean this useless stuff?" She moaned. The girl chucked the quilt and glasses at James.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Now get out!"The girl shrieked at James so loudly he jumped, nearly sending all his stuff flying again. "The last time a boy was in here, as a matter of fact, I died."

"Yeah, I'll leave... Sorry."

With that, James abruptly left, carrying his stuff. It wasn't until he and Sirius were halfway back to the dormitories that James realized the girl he was talking to was not only dead, but one of the Hogwarts ghosts. James told Sirius about this, hoping he'd be just as shocked, however Sirius just laughed at him mockingly.

"Oh, calm down, James, this place is overrun with ghosts." He told him, just as the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, greeted them with a tilt of his almost decapitated head.

"See, James? I bet you no one even goes in that bathroom thanks to her - that was probably where the water had come from." Sirius laughed. "Now, come on, guess what sport we do for P.E.? I bet you 5 Galleons you won't believe it!"

"Quidditch with Monsieur Ogden."

"Deal off!"Sirius laughed, and when James didn't he slapped him across the shoulder and sighed. "Y'know, James, you could at least have pretended you didn't know... And pretend you're happy while your at it."

As they reentered the common room, they saw Lily Evans and Remus Lupin sat on one of the sofas reading "Magic for Muggle-borns". James felt a small amount of jealousy build up, but he couldn't imagine why. Why did he want to sit and read about all the magic his parents had told him about from "Historical Figures in Magic" by Bordina Bagshot, and "Magical Creatures and Spells" by Cornelius Doefoot?

"Lupins a Muggle-born?" Sirius asked James, but he just shrugged.

"Oh, no, his parents thought he was a Squib when he was born, so they didn't teach him about magic until he recieved his letter." Lily explained, and for a second he thought he saw her wink at Remus knowingly.

"Well, Remus, you'd better not be studying by the time we've come back from breakfast, we're having another Marauders meeting. We're thinking of sneaking off to Hogsmeade some time, but we need to find all the secret passages." James told them, and skulked off.

"What's up with him?" Remus asked Lily as Sirius shrugged and ran to catch up with James, but she was staring after them. "Lily?"

"Oh, uh, James is a bit of a jerk, though, isn't he?" Lily replied, turning to face Remus again. "And don't worry, your secrets safe with me."

"What was that?" Sirius ordered, catching up with James as he took two steps at a time down the staircase, just as it moved to face the opposite direction that the two of them were going, "You don't-" Sirius stopped.

"I don't what?" James shouted at him. Of course he didn't like "that Evans girl". He was jealous of her, spending time with their friend, that was it. Remus was their friend, not hers, and that filthy Mud-

No, that was cruel. The sort of thing Slytherins did, not James. Mudblood, or filthy blood, was possibly the worst thing to call a Muggle-born witch or wizard. Slytherins were all Purebloods or, although rarely, Half-bloods, so therefore thought themselves greater than everyone else. James was better than the Slytherins. He wasn't going to sink to their level. Ignoring Sirius' reaction to his previous outburst, James strode off towards the Great Hall.

At breakfast, James hardly talked to Sirius, Peter or Lupin(both of whom came into the Great Hall shortly after James and Sirius), but it wasn't because he was trying to ignore him - his mind was on other things. He had just found out that Hogsmeade trips were now restricted to third years only, since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named seemed to be getting stronger, and Azkaban seemed to have become easier to break out of - their was talk of bringing in Dementors, evil creatures who sucked out the happiness in people, to guard the prison. Just last week, 2 break outs had been reported in The Daily Prophet, and the head of the student newspaper, second year Rita Skeeter, coveted the story and had been interviewing random people with her new Quick-Quotes Quill. In fact, just the day before, she had come up to James Potter to ask if he knew anything.

"You're Potter, aren't you?" She looked down at him like he was a toad - slimy and usually quite disgusting. "Know anything of the Azkaban break-outs that happened last week?"

"Sod off, Skeeter, like even the Ministry of Magic knows anything about the bloody break outs."

Rita didn't even bother to ask Sirius, who was walking along side him, but probably because he was glaring at her the way James was glaring at Severus, who was walking alongside Lily.

That was another thing on James Potter's mind that day at lunch. He'd barely touched his toast, which seemed to be charmed so that it could never get cold, as it kept reheating itself. How did someone as disgusting and vile as Severus Snape manage to land himself a friend, and a friend as smart and kind as Lily Evans at that? His hair was drenched in grease, his nose crooked and hooked, his face scrunched up like a piece of paper; He was disgusting just to listen to, as he had a know-it-all voice and showed off to Professor Slughorn in Potions every lesson. And they had double Potions with Slytherin this morning - right after breakfast, to be exact.

"You going to eat that, James?" asked Peter, coveting his food like a pigeon.

"Get your own, Pettigrew." James replied, until he noticed that the plates had stopped refilling themselves, and even his toast seemed to decide it was going to go cold for once - it was almost the end of breakfast.

He grabbed his toast, put them on a napkin, and headed to the common room, scoffing two pieces in at once. Sirius, Peter and Remus behind him, they all grabbed their bags and James stuffed the remaining piece of toast into his pocket for later, and the four of them set off towards the dungeons.

When they had arrived, a Slytherin seventh year and prefect, Lucius Malfoy, was standing outside of the classroom, apparently watching them while they waited for Professor Slughorn to come.

"Watch this." whispered Sirius, and he got out his wand and said, under his breath, "Quirenzious."

James thought Sirius had just made up that spell, until slowly, his hair began to burn, sending sparks flying across the hallway, and turning into letters to spell "Watch Out, Lucius Malfoy" across the dungeon floor. Lucius, unaware of that it was all Sirius, saw the words and ran out of the dungeons. James laughed at Lucius as he ran off, also clutching his hair, and James high-fived Sirius once Lucius was out of sight.

"I heard his hair is practically his life source, and I peered into a fifth year Defense Against the Dark Arts class and saw them performing that spell. Hope you didn't mind me borrowing your "special" cloak, although you didn't tell me about it at all."

"What cloak?" James asked, confused. He didn't have a "special" cloak at all. But just as he asked that, Professor Slughorn appeared, and James couldn't ask Sirius about it at all until the end of the lesson.

"Alright, everyone, get out your cauldrons, today we are going to make a simple switching potion."Professor Slughorn announced to the class once everyone was seated. James sat next to Peter and looked around at the dungeon classroom. The rock walls were dark and gritty, moss covered every patch of solid wall and the mist had a strange, greenish glow to it, although that was to be expected given it was a Potions class.

"Now everyone, open your "Standard Potions for Young Witches and Wizards" textbooks and turn to page 65. Ingredients are in that cupboard, and I advise you to read the labels and not just pick out what looks like something someone else has picked out - A potion done wrong can end up being disastrous."

James and Peter began creating their switching potion together, however it wasn't until theirs turned a pinky-red colour and everyone else's was deep purple that James realized something was wrong. He checked all the containers that were on the desk and realized Peter had mixed up Dragon blood with Pheonix blood.

"Peter you absolute idiot!" James shouted at him, "It says here in the textbook, Dragons blood is pink and Pheonix blood is yellow. How did you mix up the two colours?"

"But James, you said it looked fine when I brought the container over here!"

"Because I didn't realize you had the brain age of a bloody four year old, Peter!"

Professor Slughorn, hearing the racket the two of them were making, hurried over and inspected the potion. He looked shocked. He got out "Advanced Potions - Use Carefully" and kept running his eyes over the same page again and again, mouthing "My, oh my, boys..."

"Excuse me, sir, but what did we create?" James asked, curiosity leaking all over his face.

"I don't believe it... You must have mixed more than 1 ingredient up, because you've created the Curse Potion."

"I can't believe you messed that up, Peter." James kept ranting on the way to the Great Hall for lunch. He continued to complain about this, along with how hungry he was, but as a matter of fact he'd completely lost his appetite. After finding out him and Peter created not only something completely different to what the rest of the class had made, but an Advanced Potion from a textbook they probably didn't even teach out of at school, and Professor Slughorn only kept for reference, anyway. Sure, he was mad at Peter for losing gryffindor 20 house points(10 each), he was also quite intrigued - How had 2 first years managed to create a Cursing Potion? James was big on mischief-making, and if you can make a cursing potion once, you can make it again - He could even give it to Snape and see Lily Evans flock away from him, as he imagined Snape's worst nightmare to be losing his only friend. He decided he'd consult Peter after classes ended to find out what exactly he had grabbed from that shelf. But there was one other thing he had to take care of, first.

"So, Sirius, what were you saying about my special cloak?" He asked him once they'd sat down.

"Oh, your "special" cloak." Sirius winked at him, then continued, "Well, it comes in handy, I can see why you packed it to bring here - a lot of mischief could be made using that alone. Maybe we could even hang Snape upside-"

"Listen, Sirius, I understand your joy - well, I partially do - but I have no idea what cloak you're talking about. The only cloak I have is my school one, and I don't see how much mischief I could make with that."

"Oh, come on, James, you don't have to hide the fact you have an-"Sirius dropped his voice volume to as low as he could manage, "Invisibility cloak."

"But I don't, Sirius! This isn't funny, I have no idea what you're talking about and it's really annoying, so spit it out that it's all a big prank or shut up."

Sirius looked very hurt by that last sentence, but all he did was scowl at James. In fact, he didn't say anything for the rest of lunch. James felt quite bad and regretful, seeing him sat there, completely dejected from the conversation as Remus was telling them about some of the wizards and witches him and Lily had read about in Bordina Bagshot's books, and apparently Bordina's younger cousin, Bethilda had started up as a magical historian as well. It was quite fascinating for Remus as he had apparently been home schooled in muggle subjects all his life, as his parents had believed him to be a Squib, however this story seemed quite perculiar - James had been able to perform spells without his own knowing when he was younger. Had Remus not been able to do the same?

James couldn't help but feel a little suspicious as the other two Marauders lapped the story up like cats drinking milk. Did they not feel a little suspicious about it either?


	3. Peter Pettigrew

3 Peter Pettigrew

Peter Pettigrew was often forgotten and left out, and it seemed Sirius, James and Remus weren't any different to his friends from home in that certain aspect. Once again, all of them had left the dormitories together, forgetting to wake Peter up. He was aware of the fact he was bigger and not as cool as the other Marauders, and although he was in there group, he was never really told about meetings, and it seemed that they'd come up with some ideas he wasn't consulted about. In the last meeting (to which Peter had only be present at because of his good timing at entering the Common Room that day), they began talking about a "Map", charting all the different pathways and tunnels inside the school.

"There's got to be loads, this castle's centuries old!"James had said excitedly.

"We could call it The Marauders Map, and put a charm on it to make it only open to a certain password, like the fat lady portrait." Remus suggested.

"And we could-" Peter had started, but he was cut of by Sirius, who suggested it would insult anyone who got the password wrong.

By the end of the meeting, each were in fits of laughter after thinking up funny insults, and once again ignored Peters presence in the group.

It didn't really bother him that much, because Remus helped him in his worst subject(and Remus' best), Transfiguration, in which Professor McGonagall had warned him one more failed grade and she would put him in extra classes during lunch, which wasn't fair considering Professor Slughorn, his Potions teacher, had also warned him of this, and Remus sat on the other side of the room in that. Thankfully, though, Lily Evans had offered to help him, however she was also tutoring her Slytherin friend, Severus Snape, whom the Marauders were apparently supposed to hate, according to James.

"It's because he secretly likes Lily Evans." Sirius told Remus and Peter(or really just Remus, with Peter listening in), "But she prefers Severus, of course-" Sirius stuck his finger down his throat slightly, "so James is set on destroying Severus."

A few weeks ago, Sirius and James had a row, but it seemed they'd made up, as they were now in charge of The Marauders Hallowe'en plans.

"Nothing against you two, but Sirius and I are more of the trouble-making sort, so we'll come up with the plans, Remus you can check the logic in the plans and make sure it will work fine, and uh, Peter... you can just, I don't know... Your small - find some escape routes from the castle!"

So after breakfast that day(to which Remus was strangely absent, but Peter suspected he was studying in the library and had eaten earlier - he wasn't in the dorms when Peter woke up, either), Peter would be setting off around the school. On the day of James and Sirius' row, Sirius had mentioned James had an invisibility cloak, and although James denied it, Peter was intrigued and started routing through James' trunk, searching for an old-fashioned cloak. And there, right at the bottom of James' clothes, lay a moth-eaten brown cloak that fit the picture of what Peter was looking for, he put it on everything but his head and looked down at his body - It had completely disappeared. There was a mirror somewhere in the dormitory... He started to do a little "decapitated head" dance, but quickly flung the cloak over his head when he heard someone coming.

The door swung open and a small, pale figure entered, with large green eyes and huge ears sticking up high above the creatures head. It wore something that looked like some old curtains badly sewn together to create a little robe for the creature to wear. Peter had heard of these before - It was a house-elf. He had no idea Hogwarts used elves for all the work - he had guessed it was all done by magic, but now he saw how wrong he was.

Not wanting to frighten the house elf, Peter quickly grabbed the door just before it closed and slid outside before the elf had noticed anything. He had a job to do, and for once he wasn't being as much left out as usual. He grabbed a piece of parchment from the common room, stuffed it in his pocket and set out to chart all of the different passageways in the school.

Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, was hard to sneak past at the best of times. Not only was Peter hungry, his stomache gargling madly, but Filch, a man in his 30s, was the sharpest man alive for small sounds and tiny spots to sight. He had a cat, Sally Norris, who had eyes like a hawk seemed to be able to see right through the Invisibility Cloak as Peter walked past. He quietly but quickly moved past them before Filch noticed Sally was meowing madly at Peter (he knew there was some charm that could see through it), and came face to face with a statue of a one-eyed hag. But it wasn't alone. A fourth-year Slytherin girl, Fiona Fenchston, seemed to be whispering spells at the statue, however nothing seemed to happen. Peter stood still, out of the way of the hall in case someone came past and bumped into him, and watched, as Fiona whispered one last charm Peter didn't quite catch, and suddenly a hole appeared, just big enough for her to fit herself through. She pushed her bag down on its own, and followed it down there, just in the nick of time before Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house, passed them, her glasses gleaming. She stared at the statue, as if being able to see Fiona through the now closed tunnel, and Peter thought she would go down there to check if anyone was there, but then she walked off. Peter charted this on the parchment, and scurried away, determined to study up on spells and come back another day. He wanted so badly to tell Remus and get help from him, but if he figured this one out for himself, he might become more of a part of the group. Maybe he could even threaten Fiona into telling him how she did it. But he still had to find some other passages first.

He decided he'd check outside for tunnels through trees and bushes, since he'd rarely get the chance to do this again. Just as he was on his way to the Forbidden Forest, however, a huge tree, separated from all the others, stood in the middle of the grounds. It was very different to the other trees - more lively. Peter approached the tree with caution. It obviously wasn't there for any old reason - However he hadn't heard anything about a strange tree being kept on the school grounds before. Maybe it had recently been planted. Peter decided he would check around the roots for trap doors. But as soon as he came within searching distance of a trap door, a loud scream came from below the tree and one of the branches came crashing down just next to where Peter was standing. Why was a tree attacking him? And... was that the tree?

_Screaming?_

Peter ran for it. Whatever was underneath the tree, he was sure it wasn't anything pleasant, and once he was out of the trees way, sure enough, a rather frightening howl came from the tree. He had to tell the others. He had to warn them not to go near the tree. But how would he explain to James that he'd taken his invisibility cloak? He didn't know, but he was sure he could come up with something.

He sneaked back across the hallway, toward the Gryffindor common room, however he realized he couldn't get in without taking the cloak off, and walking round with an old cloak wasn't a very good idea at all. He decided he'd wait outside until someone came past and opened the portrait.

It was a very long wait. Peter checked his watch from under the cloak - It was lunch time. His stomach grumbled madly, realizing how long it had been since he had eaten. The past few hours had felt even longer to Peter - it wasn't everyday he got attacked by a tree. Maybe he'd go to the library and find out about the tree, because even if none of the books told him why there was a savage tree in a school, however much magic it taught there, he was sure it wasn't the only one of its kind. He headed back, towards the library, hoping he'd see Remus and have some company (He was sure he wouldn't tell James), but, much to Peter's surprise, there was no sign of Remus. In fact, there was no sign of anybody, except for Madam Hornet the librarian. She was a middle aged woman with a kind, unwrinkled face, but her personality didn't match - she was positively awful to anyone, no matter how kind they were in return. He had reckoned she was a Slytherin in her day, until a fourth year, Derrik Feraman, told him that Derrik's mum went to school with her, and she was actually in Ravenclaw, fitting to her high sense of intellect, which just made her even more snobby to anyone who entered the library.

however, Madam Hornet was currently dusting the Restricted Section of the library, so Peter was free to browse away without disturbance of someone wondering why a book was floating in mid-air. He decided to pick up the most obvious books - "Magical Plants and Their Useful Uses" by Marie Greengrass, "Dangerous Plants" by Drephias Sapling, and "The Plant Book of Plants", which looked like the cover was made of recently-weeded grass(Peter assumed Madam Hornet had already dusted and, apparently, weeded this section).

Peter started looking through "Magical Plants and Their Useful Uses", as it seemed the most likely to help him, given that the tree was probably used for guarding things. He found 3 entries connected to what he was looking for, but none of the sections had pictures, apparently because they were rare to come by, or too dangerous to grow. The 3 entries he found were a Guarding Garden tree, but that one didn't attack with branches, it squirted poison at anyone who came near it, a Repelling Plant, which kept Muggles from places they shouldn't be by attacking them(but Peter didn't find out if it attacked wizards as well or not), and the last, closest to what Peter was looking for, was the Whomping Willow, which was described to keep everyone out of anywhere, no matter if they were visible without revealing charms or not, with a simple swing of its branches, however it could be easily damaged, which Peter doubted very much, given he almost lost his life out there to a ruthless tree.

In "Dangerous Plants", he didn't find pictures of a Repelling Plant or a Whomping Willow, however the picture of the Guarding Garden tree crossed that out from the run - It looked like an ordinary tree, however the one outside was leafless and strange-looking. Hoping desperately this would all be sorted by reading "The Plant Book of Plants", he opened it and flipped through each page, until he came to the Whomping Willow, which didn't provide pictures, or even much of a description either, just a few words about its history. He was about to close it and find a different book, when a miniature version of what was outside grew onto the cover of the book. Knowing Madam Hornet would be angry, after weeding the whole book, having to get rid of a Whomping Willow off it too, he pulled the tree out and stuffed it in his cloak pocket. It hit him wildly, still appearing to be alive, but it didn't hurt - it didn't seem to be very strong at all compared to the one outside. Just as he made his way back to Gryffindor Common Room, he almost ran into Sirius and James, talking about, once again, the cloak. Peter knew he couldn't suddenly appear in the common room after them, so he decided to enter, but lurk, still wearing the invisibility cloak.

"I'm telling you, you will find one! Maybe your parents packed it or something, I don't know, but I bet you 10 Galleons its there!" Sirius was telling James.

"And I bet you 20 Galleons your wrong." James denied, not even bothering to listen to Sirius' reasons.

They stepped into the dormitories, and Peter followed closely behind, trying to keep as quiet as possible.

"Open it then!" Sirius said impatiently after a minute or two. "Too scared you'll owe me 30 Galleons?"

"How did you get to that number, Sirius?" James said tormentingly, "Terrible at Maths in your muggle school, I hear."

"Just open it James."

A soft click came from where they were standing, and the trunk flew open. James began rummaging through it, but found no sign of any cloak.

"See? I told you."

"What?" Sirius almost shouted.

He also began rummaging through it, mentally, trying to prove himself right.

"It was here! I swear my life to You-Know-Who it was!"

"Then I hope you enjoy your life, Sirius." James smiled at him, but it wasn't a friendly smile. It was more of a Stop-Wasting-My-Time smile.

Peter was too afraid they'd both be angry at him if he appeared now, but he was sure, once he saw Remus again, he would help Peter sort things out.

"Come on, Sirius. I don't hate you, if you just admitted you were wrong then-"

"BUT I'M NOT WRONG!" he shouted at him. Sirius was scarlet with rage, the exact shade of the Hogwarts Express, in fact. "It was here! I know it-" Sirius suddenly stopped talking, and had an expression of deep thought on his face. He was staring right where Peter was standing.

"What are you-" James began, but Sirius interrupted him.

"Shh," Sirius shut him up, "Listen."

Sure enough, Peters stomach was grumbling, giving him away completely.

"Who's there?" The two of them shouted as one.

"Hang on, Remus was telling me about a charm for this in Defence Against the Dark Arts..." Sirius racked his brain, thinking what it could have been Remus was saying to them a week ago in Professor Corquouse's class.

"Oh yeah!" James remembered, suddenly, and pointed his wand close to where Sirius was looking, "_Homenum Revelio_."

The invisibility cloak fell off Peter, and he looked back and forth between James and Sirius, bewilderment spread across his face.

"That's it, James! Peter had it." Sirius said suddenly.

"That's what?" James asked, as if the past few minutes hadn't even happened.

"The invisibility cloak!" Sirius told him, the expression in his voice implying that it was the most obvious thing in the world that the horrible, moth-eaten material could possibly turn someone invisible.

"But, its not invisible. I can clearly see it." said James, desperately trying to keep his dignity, but failing awfully.

"Oh, for God's sake, James, you just saw Peter appear out of thin air with this _thing _draped across him. You honestly refuse to believe there isn't something strange about this cloak?"

"But that's not mine. It's probably Peter's, he has lots of weird old stuff. Peter, where did you get this from?"

"Uh... Y-your trunk..." He stuttered, trying to mute out his voice by placing a hand across his mouth.

James' face scrunched up horridly, and Peter was stunned. Before James could say anything, he quickly added,

"But Sirius did as well! And I found a secret passage around the school, and a strange tree that seems haunted!"

"So..." James said, his jaw hardened and his teeth clenched together, "You route through my stuff, and only manage to find _one _passageway and a bloody tree?"

James raised his fist to meet Peter's face, but Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder and stopped him.

"Don't, James. How else did we expect him to sneak around this school and find stuff if he was clearly visible. It wasn't really fair, was it?"

James turned to glare at Sirius, then back to Peter, but he dropped his fist and walked off.

Peter had never been so scared of someone he thought was his friend his entire life. And it didn't help that he was failing all of his classes, no matter how much help Lily Evans was giving him, especially since Remus had been absent for a few days now. Plus, every time Lily tutored him and Severus, she always praised Severus for getting things right, even though he got _everything _right and didn't even need tutoring in the first place, and James kept scowling at him for asking Lily for help. In fact, that day, he made such a snide remark about Lily Evans in Potions.

"I don't see why they're asking a _Mudblood _to help them, she doesn't know anything about the magical world besides what the rest of us have been being taught this last year, nothing about all the different witches and warlocks that _my_ parents told _me _about, now, does she?"

"Well, go on then, James, _you _teach Severus and Peter all these different things they are struggling with that are _to do _with what we've been learning about this year, since you _are _the Great James Potter, after all."

James didn't even bother thinking up a comeback. He just skulked at the back of the class, whispering things to Sirius that were so obviously insults at Lily, because Sirius didn't even want to listen to James.

Having James Potter as a friend was one thing - sometimes, on odd occasions, he'd be a little temperamental, but usually he was fine for a good laugh. Having him hate you was a complete other - always making snide, hateful comments about everything you did, whether it went against what he believed in or not. He began to feel quite sorry for Severus, who never really deserved the hate James showed toward him - all he really did was be friends with Lily Evans, right? That couldn't bother James, since he didn't like Lily Evans at all.

And it suddenly cracked to him _why _James didn't like Severus. James seemed to hate Lily, yes, but he seemed to be quite passionate about his hate - almost as if he just enjoyed to talk to her.

Knowing James' secret was going to be a fun way of getting back into The Marauders, or just plain bothering James. But of course he wanted to be in The Marauders - But clearly he wasn't welcome. Unless...

Peter began hatching a plan to get himself back into the group. They thought they had something planned for Hallowe'en? _We'll see, _thought Peter to himself, as he made his way back to the common rooms that night.

_We'll see..._


	4. Lily Evans

4 Lily Evans

James Potter was the last person Lily Evans wanted to think about as she sat in the library, talking to her half-blood friend, Erin-Lee Chalk, a Hufflepuff, whose mother had been a muggle. Her mother had thought Erin-Lee a freak, just as Lily's awful sister, Petunia had. This was what her and Lily were talking about the day Sirius Black had apologized for James' behavior the previous day.

"My mum left me with my dad after she found out I was going to be a wizard. It took her a while to come to terms with marrying a wizard, let alone having a witch as a child. She hoped I'd be a squib, but when I was 3 and I set her new pink dress on fire simply by glaring at it in one of my toddler moodswings, there was no chance." Erin told Lily, as Sirius Black, followed closely by an angry-looking James Potter, who really didn't seem up to what Sirius was forcing him to do.

"Hi, Erin! Hi, Lily!" Sirius said in a very cheerful voice, opposite to how James looked.

"Hi, guys!" Erin replied, but Lily went quiet suddenly, refusing to greet them at all. This shocked them all, who had been thinking no greeting would be worse than James Potters, who simply grunted at them.

"Well, James here would like to talk to Lily, so why don't we go sit at another table, hey Erin?" Sirius gave Erin a meaningful look.

"Oh, yeah. I actually wanted to ask you about this thing..." She played along well, and the two of them sat at the opposite table, ready to pull James and Lily from each other if things got ugly.

"So, um, what you reading?" James asked, looking down at him grubby shoes. The Gryffindors had just got back from Quidditch, and Professor McGonagall was even considering picking him for the team, but now the smug expression he had worn on his face earlier faded into a shy expression Lily had never seen him have before.

"Honestly, James, lets just get this over with. What were you hear to say?" Lily asked, pretending to sigh impatiently.

"I, uh, wanted to apologize for calling you a Mudblood. And for hexing your broom to not move and make Monsieur Ogden fail you."

"That was you?" Lily said, partially shocked, partially glaring.

"And there's more. I'm sorry for putting mud on your bed sheets and saying it was your kinds version of a period, I'm sorry for sending your owl to people that didn't exist, I'm sorry for-"

"Look, James," Lily interrupted him, "I understand. You just don't like me very much, and I'm okay with that. To each his own, right? But I'm still not very happy about all that stuff, and I'd like to ask you to kindly remove yourself from this library."

James gestured at Sirius for him to follow, and Sirius left Erin-Lee, smiling at her. "This has been a very nice conversation we've had, but now I have to leave." and him and James left the library, muttering quietly to each other so the girls couldn't hear. Erin returned to where she was sitting previously, her green eyes glinting in interest.

"So, what did he want to tell you?" She said, a big smile spread across her face, her perfect teeth dazzling in the light.

"Just an apology. You know the person we discussed was out to get me? That it was probably a Slytherin girl? Maybe Mandy Moss, because you know how much Slytherins hate Mudbloods and muggles?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Erin-Lee answered, acting bored, "But what does that have to do with anything he said? Tell me, Lily, before I beat it out of you with the Imperious Curse!"

"That is illegal, and it has a very great deal to do with all of that stuff. Because, as a matter of fact, it wasn't Mandy Moss, it was the oh-so Great and Perfect James Pureblood-Shoul've-Been-A-Slytherin Potter." She replied, the last part coated with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes at the sound of James Potter being anything other than a huge jerk. How James managed to get himself friends like Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, 3 of whom had been exceedingly nice to Lily Evans ever since the day they all met, she did not know. She continued to read _Hogwarts: A History_, ignoring Erin-Lee's attempts to get her to take back everything and just start off a clean slate with James. Obviously she didn't hate him as much as she pretended to - they're weren't 2 less perfect people to be friends. Both we're kind people, both smart and skilled at magic, both exceedingly talented, however both enjoyed to act like huge fools at times. Erin soon gave up, gave Lily a raised-eyebrow look Lily pretended to ignore, but Erin didn't say anything more. She simply sat there in silence, almost mimicking Lily's behavior, and continued doing her Transfiguration homework.


	5. Sirius Black

5 Sirius Black

"So, what did you guys talk about?" Sirius pestered James after the library incident, but it seemed James refused to think about it entirely. James didn't even seem to acknowledge Sirius' existence at that moment in time, since he continued to walk as though Sirius wasn't there. Sirius, quite offended but trying hard not to show it, took the hint and changed the subject. "So, do you think we should get started running through the final plans for Hallowe'en? It's only a week away."

"Where could we do that? I can't go in the library, not after that. She's a Gryffindor too, plus the Common Room isn't as private as I'd like. In the library people leave you alone. You know what happens in the Common Room?" James didn't wait for Sirius to reply to that before he continued, "People eavesdrop on you like you just mentioned the worlds biggest secret! Its so..." James clenched every joint in his fingers, and Sirius put a hand on his shoulder to stop his violent outbursts.

"Calm, James. We can still go in the library." Sirius smirked at James, but he returned it with a confused look. After a minute or so, James gasped, looking as though he wanted to beat himself up (or maybe Severus instead) for not being the one to figure that out. Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed, "Honestly, James. Takes you a while to catch on, doesn't it? Hard to believe your one of the top students in our year, right under Lily Evans and Remus." Sirius pulled James toward the Common Room, laughing madly.

"You really think this is a good idea, Sirius?" James whispered, looking quite uncomfortable sat in the library. Their chairs were pulled right next to each other, as they sat, both covered in a ragged, moth-eaten cloak that would have attracted so many peoples attention had it not been the Invisibility Cloak Sirius had found in James' trunk one day that helped him spy on a fifth year Defence Against the Dark Arts class. It was a very uncomfortable experience, having to stay as close as possible to each other so that they weren't spotted - Sirius had to admit he was getting quite claustrophobic, and all because James didn't want to be spotted. They had considered just covering James with it, but Sirius would look strange, as if he was sitting in the library talking to himself, and being in The Marauders, you didn't want to look strange or uncool. Just as Slytherins didn't want to look kind and gentle - it went against their nature.

"Unless you have a better plan, which I'm sure we've had that you just crossed off the list due to your embarrassment at having to look Lily Evans in the face again, then stop criticizing mine, or I swear when we get back to the Common Rooms-"

"Do you hear something, Lily?" Erin-Lee was saying from the table across from them. Erin came over to their table, placed her hand where they were sat, and, sure enough, she was quite shocked to find a surface in what appeared to be thin air. "James? Sirius?" she muttered, and they both turned red faced, caught in the act.

"Yeah.." they both replied.

"Don't worry, I'll not tell anyone. Just be quieter, okay? Your louder than a group of Cornish Pixies." and with that, she laughed to herself, turned back towards Lily, and shrugged. "Must've been my imagination." She told her, and once again went back to doing her homework.

Sirius was very glad it was Erin who had heard them and not Lily. He was sure Lily would be incredibly mad with James for coming back, after she had sent him out of the library, but thankfully, Erin wasn't so mad at them both to let them continue their plans. So far they had come up with things like placing Dr Filibuster's No-Heat Wet-Start Fireworks in some of the food (but that was quite a bit dangerous), or putting a Polyjuice Potion in everyone's drinks to turn them into different people (Although they would have to get Remus' help on that, and so far he hadn't been seen anywhere by any of The Marauders). It was a very fun lunch that neither of them had thought about food, so now it was lessons again, and they were both absolutely starving. Sirius considered using a Summoning Charm to get them some food from the kitchens, but so far all they managed to get were 2 pieces of broccoli, which neither of them was willing to eat, no matter how hungry they were. Still, though, having some good plans to run over with Remus once he returned was more satisfying than a whole crate of Cauldron Cakes from the trolley lady on the Hogwarts Express, and they were sure once they'd made their map of the school they would be able to sneak food out of the kitchens in no time at all (if only Peter was more reliable when it came to looking for secret passages, although Sirius had to admit he was intrigued by the tree Peter had mentioned the other night). Sirius made a mental note to talk to Peter about it at his next opportunity, and, sure enough, that opportunity came the very next day.

Peter had gotten up earlier than the other Marauders for once, and was sat in the Common Room, most likely waiting for James to awaken so he could ask James if he could borrow the Invisibility Cloak. "Hey, Peter!" Sirius called to him, and sat down on the seat opposite, preparing his question in his mind. "You know that tree you were talking about the other day? Did you find anything out about it?"

Peter, looking very happy that finally one of The Marauders had took an interest to something he had to say, he took a small object from his cloak pocket. "I got this from the library. They have the Plant Book of Plants, and it grows miniature versions of the plants you are interested in looking at instead of showing just pictures. There's no mistake about it - Hogwarts has got a Whomping Willow, one of the worlds most dangerous trees, to guard something. I reckon its a trap door, and it seemed to have someone in pain underneath it, because I could hear screaming underneath it!"

Peters explanation of how he came across the tree was much shorter than the detail he had given of the tree, even though it was unnecessary to describe so much, given they had a smaller version of it on the table in front of them both. "So, your saying Dumbledore is using it to guard something, or someone, from the rest of the school?" Sirius asked after Peter had concluded his deep explanation of each of the branches.

"No doubt about it," He replied, "When do you come across one of the worlds most dangerous trees in one of the worlds safest places unless its guarding something even more dangerous?"

Just as Sirius was about to ask what Peter reckoned was more dangerous than a vicious tree, Remus walked in through the passage. "Oh, hi. James not up yet?" Remus asked them, as if he hadn't been missing for the last 4 days.

"No. Where've you been?" Sirius asked, now more interested in Remus than the Whomping Willow Peter had found, much to Peter's disappointment.

"Oh, there was a family emergency," Remus said, and, reading the shock on Peter and Sirius' face, he added, "Oh, no, it was just a false alarm. My dad had a nightmare that Dumbledore had retired and You-Know-Who was now headmaster of Hogwarts, and ordered for me to return home at once. Of course, it wasn't necessary for me to return, but I believed my dad needed some comforting that I would be fine, so Dumbledore sent me home for a few days." Remus quickly changed the subject, "So, has James got any final Hallowe'en plans for me to run over?"

"Yeah, we have some plans of putting stuff in the food and drinks - either Dr Filibusters Fireworks - but we'll have to find a passage to Hogsmeade to get to Zonkos for that, but Peter thinks he's found a place - or Polyjuice Potion, but we'll need you to find the ingredients, since you're the only one Slughorn would trust in his cupboard and some of the ingredients aren't easily found anywhere else."

"I think we'll go with the Polyjuice Potion plan, using any sort of fireworks is a bit too dangerous for a prank unless you want to injure that person."

Sirius thought James would have liked to put a firework in Severus' food, but since there was no telling where everyone would sit, they hat to trust that they would get the right person. The rest of The Marauders were even willing to drink Polyjuice Potion so it would seem less suspicious.


	6. The Whomping Willow

6 The Whomping Willow

The next few days Peter Pettigrew spent feeling more of a part of his group of friends. The Marauders had, for some time, left him out and ignored him, but he still worshipped them all like Aurors ever since he met them all (not counting Remus, who he met in the Great Hall after the sorting) on his bus journey to Hogwarts. Over the following week, the week before Hallowe'en, Peter and Sirius were trusted with finding more passageways, however Sirius, despite James not caring about the tree, was more interested in the Whomping Willow, so the two spent most of their week in the library, reading up on the tree for any clues on its weaknesses, and any way they could get passed it. Remus and James were in charge of brewing the Polyjuice Potion - until Remus found a batch just big enough for a small amount to spike a few cups (They didn't have to use it on everyone - just as long as one of The Marauders got a batch), so James was in charge of getting enough hair and seperating each of them so they didn't end up with a deformed person. He managed to get a few of Severus Snape's hairs, along with Lucius Malfoy's and Alice Fortescue's, a Hufflepuff first year who sat next to James in Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

On their way towards the Whomping Willow, Sirius noticed Peter become very quiet. Sirius looked at him, and noticed he was shivering madly. Sirius became even more nervous at the state of Peter. Although he was known for being a coward, Sirius still didn't like it that Peter looked as though if that tree moved even an inch toward them both Peter would have a heart attack on the spot. And as soon as Sirius saw the real, full-sized tree instead of the miniature one Peter kept in his pocket, he understood completely.

Peter was shivering even more violently now that they were up close to it, and he had every reason to be. The tree was nothing like Sirius had ever seen in his life, and he had 3 mad cousins, that he refused to mention to anyone, who, although only around Sirius' age, fully supported He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and everything he did. The Whomping Willow was probably 50 feet high. Nothing about it suggested it was even a tree, except for it's distinct trunk. Little to no leaves grew on it's spiky, twisted branches, and the ends of them were knotted to look like giant fists, ready to pound anyone who came near enough to it. "You don't think it can be stunned, do you?" Sirius asked, recalling another charm he had seen being performed in the fifth-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class he had watched whilst wearing James' Invisibility Cloak.

"I r-reckon it'll t-take a f-few more p-people t-t-t-o stun this th-thing." Peter said, his voice vibrating along with the rest of his stone-cold body.

"Well, its worth a shot. If it doesn't work, we peg it before it has chance to attack us, alright?" Sirius said, and Peter, although hesitating, nodded almost as violently as he shivered. Sirius whispered the spell in his ear, and Sirius counted, "One... Two..." They both prepared themselves, wands at the ready, and, as Sirius shouted, "Three!" the two of them waved their wands at the tree and shouted "_Stupefy!_"

The Stun was much more effective than they had expected. The tree, although very aggressive, appeared to also be quite fragile, and it bended backwards slightly, and an opening appeared through its roots. The two of them, hesitating as little as possible, as they were unsure as to how quickly the tree would come around, jumped through the roots. They were soon in a small room, and Sirius suddenly gasped.

"I've heard about this place. It's apparently been deserted for years, although recently people around the area have been hearing screaming and groans from here, it was reported in _The Daily Prophet_ about a week ago." Sirius stared around the room, "We're in The Shrieking Shack, which means we've found a passage to Hogsmeade."

"I read about that. Around the same time Remus was at home. Think it was the article that triggered his nightmare?"

"Probably. I think it could all be connected to You-Know-Who. Let's just hope today's not the day we find out."

Peter was about to leave the Shrieking Shack through it's proper entrance when Sirius put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Are you mad? We're only first years, and we haven't got the cloak. We can come back another time, with the others if we can fit four under James' cloak. It's too risky in broad daylight, though, we'll get caught in no time."

The two of them climbed back up the passageway they had come down, and made a run for it as soon as they were out. The Whomping Willow had come back to its senses, and was now madly hitting the ground next to them. Sirius and Peter had to dodge every hit quickly, before the next one came where they had dodged the last one to. Eventually, they got back into the castle, but not too relieved as they would have been - Argus Filch, the caretaker who was always eager to get students and ghosts into trouble, was smiling at them malevolently.

"Well, well, well," He said, his grin bigger than the boys had ever seen it before, "Sneaking out, are we? Follow me. I'm sure Professor McGonagall will be happy to punish you for this."

"What do you two think you were doing?" Professor McGonagall shrieked at them, Filch stood in the corner, grinning from ear to ear, "Sneaking of to Hogsmeade, I presume? Think you're cool, breaking the rules, Mr Black? Mr Pettigrew?" Her face was filled with outrage, looking as if she was going to hit them at any moment.

The two of them stared down at the floor, guiltily, although they really hadn't done any of the things McGonagall was thinking they had done, but they were still equally guilty.

"Detention, both of you. Meet me here tomorrow night at six."

The two of them stared at each other, plans failed for showing James and Remus the Shrieking Shack.

"And..." She continued, ignoring their annoyance at her, "While the other students take part in the Hallowe'en feast, you two will sit in your Common Room in _silence_. I will bring you both food, but that is all you are allowed to do."

Plans ruined for Hallowe'en, the two of them hoped Remus and James could manage the Polyjuice Plan without them.


	7. Hallowe'en

7 Hallowe'en

"You can't _what?" _James whisper-shrieked. Peter and Sirius had just told them that they weren't allowed to attend the Hallowe'en feast, and it seemed James' plans required all of them to be there. "It's going to be even harder for one of us to get a drop of Polyjuice Potion now. You _had _to go and get yourself caught, didn't you?"

"Well, I'm very sorry James, that I ran screaming "I solemly swear that I am up to no good, Professor McGonagall!" I didn't realize that wasn't _the plan!_"

"You two, calm it." said Remus, in a very chilled-out tone, as he placed down _Hogwarts: A History _on the table beside him and looked up at Sirius and James. "I'll keep a drop of it in the vial so that when me and James come and take our seats I'll slip James a bit of one of the batches, okay?"

James and Sirius nodded, not taking their glaring eyes off each other.

"Wait. Why do I have to drink it?" asked James suspiciously.

"Because, out of the two of us, unless you turn into someone else everyone will believe it was you who did it. You do this kind of thing whether you have people to help you and back you up or not."

"Good point..." James mumbled, trying to think up a way to get out of drinking the potion without being suspected of spiking the drinks, but, for once, James couldn't think up a plan that would work.

On the night of Hallowe'en, James and Remus got out the Invisibility Cloak and slipped through to the Great Hall just half an hour before the feast. Remus took the hairs, put a few of them in peoples drinks, before James poured in the Polyjuice Potion. Remus left a few drops in the vial, along with a couple of Severus Snape's hairs, and handed them to James. He put the hairs into the vial and placed it into his pocked, grimacing at it. "out of all the hairs..." James said angrily at Remus.

"Sorry, forgot I had to leave a few until last minute. It was between Snape and Evan Rosier, and I knew out of the two you'd want to be neither, so I randomly placed one in a different glass."

"Next year we're going with the fireworks..." James muttered to Remus, disgusted with the fact that he would have to turn into a filthy, greasy-haired, oily-skinned, Slytherin. There was nothing even remotely good about turning into Snape. Maybe he'd just not drink anything at the feast that evening.

Soon, it was the Hallowe'en feast, and James entered the Great Hall feeling much less happy than he had been coming up with this plan. Nearly Headless Nick wasn't exactly helping - He was jumping up and down like Peeves, and kept suddenly going mournful and singing "Happy Deathday To Meee~" Remus had asked what this was about, and Nick told him that his jacked-up beheading had happened on October 31st, 1492. Nick then broke out into a dramatic recital of his death, as Remus and James backed away slowly, and took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

James look around to make sure no one was looking, and poured the hair and Polyjuice Potion into his Pumpkin juice.

Once everyone was seated, Dumbledore stood up and made a quick speech about the past term, before allowing them all to start eating. A few minutes passed before someone took a swig of their pumpkin juice and began groaning in pain. James turned to look at his drink, a look of horror on his face - What was _in _that? And if thats the way someone reacted when they were turned into.. - James looked back and saw Slytherin 4th year Rodolphus Lestrange's face morphing slowly with the person who was now turning into him - what was it going to be like turning into Snape?

Some more people began turning into others, and groans echoed around the hall. Remus nudged James, and James knew he had to drink some of his to make it less suspicious. James picked up his glass, stared down at his drink, the awful smell floating up his nostrils. He placed his mouth around the cup and took a small swig. He began groaning as well. Changing into someone by Polyjuice Potion was an awful experience James hoped never to have to endure again - his cheekbones cracked and the skin on his face grew tighter around them. his hair grew longer, until it reached his chin, and his skin went very pale indeed. A couple of second year girls who had turned into Lucius Malfoy clones were escorted to the Infirmary due to embarrassment of turning into a boy.

By the end of the feast, all the teachers were checking pockets to see who had slipped the potion into the drinks. Remus told James to get rid of the vial, and he carefully slipped it into a third-year boy's cloak pocket. The third year boy was found with it and told to go to Professor Dumbledore's office "_immediately", _by a very stern Professor McGonagall. Once the teachers had cleared away, Remus high-fived James subtly, and they both whispered to each other about what a success it had been. There was only one person who suspected them - Severus Snape. He stared intently at them, trying to pick out something - anything - they were saying.


	8. Severus Snape

8 Severus Snape

The Autumn came and went like the wind, and it was soon Christmas. Severus Snape was studying in the library on the morning of Christmas Eve, to which his friend, Avery, grumbled. "Snape, your such a nerd, you know that?" he groaned, as he placed his head on the library table, ready for a nap.

"Madam Hornet will have you if she finds you napping on her 'perfectly spotless' table again, Avery." Said a voice from behind them, it was Mulciber, another first year Slytherin in their gang.

"Well, I don't give a house-elf about Madam Hornet." Avery replied.

"Well, Mr Avery, I don't care all that much about you, either, but I have the decency to not lay my filthy head on your table. could you be as kind to not do the same to me, when I'm the one who has to clean the mess you make in here up."

Avery sat up and turned very red. Once she had walked off, Mulciber started snorting madly.

"Oh, _shut up_, Mulciber, like you aren't coated in Every Flavor Bean shells."

Mulciber turned just as red as Avery and began brushing off his cloak.

"Where have Lestrange and Rosier got to?" Avery grumbled at them all.

"No idea. Let's just hope it's not like last time." Mulciber said, but refused to laugh after Avery's cruelty toward him.

Severus presumed he would have cared about Lestrange not being there had he not been reading up on truth potions. Besides Defence Against The Dark Arts, Severus' best subject was Potions, and if he managed to concoct a brilliant Truth Potion, he could easily get proof that James Potter was the "mastermind" behind the Polyjuice Potion incident at Hallowe'en that year. Sure, he had no proof at all right now, but he was positive it was James who's plan it was.

"Hey look, Snape, it's your girlfriend!" Avery shouted across the library as Lily Evans walked in, accompanied by Gryffindor first year Mary McDonald, a girl whom Mulciber and Wilkes enjoyed teasing very much.

"Hey Mary!" Mulciber smiled evilly at her, and, she cowered behind Lily, whispering in her ear.

"Give it a rest, Mulciber. Sev!" She said angrily at him, once she had noticed he was there. "You know I think you could have found better friends than this pack of idiots." She shook her head disapprovingly.

"Well, Miss Evans, I didn't realize our Half-Blood Prince made conversation with Queen of the Mud-" Avery started, but Severus put a hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"Would you all mind taking your petty arguments away from my reading space?" Severus complained, never taking his eyes off the words in his book.

Lily, looking shocked that Severus hadn't bothered to stick up for her, after they had been friends for so many years. "Well, Severus," she said, holding her head quite higher than usual, "It seems your new pack of "pals" means more to you than your childhood friend, so I'll leave "The Half-Blood Prince" to his duties, shall I?" She stormed away from him, Mary closely by her side, and walked to the table farthest away from them.

Ever since then, The Slys had made it a point to refer to Severus as "The Half-Blood Prince", partially out of mocking. It would have been cool, had Lily Evans not glared at Severus every time they walked passed her, or Avery yell, "Not good enough for the royal folk, darling, sorry." Every time Severus ignored her. Lily must have been furious with Severus, because she started hanging around with none other than the annoying Marauders. Well, at least until James got a bit miffed that she was only doing it to annoy Severus, and began to play tricks on her again until she left them alone.

"Oi, Potter." Avery called to him one day, "Way to get a girlfriend." he sneered as Lily flicked a spider James had magicked onto her off her cloak. James glared back, and, spotting Severus, walked up to them and said,

"Well, Severus, I didn't know you so great. The Half Blood Prince?" James and Sirius, who was now stood behind him, laughed, "Well, lets see how the amazing Prince does up against little old James Potter!" James got out his wand and said the first spell that came into his head - which, incidently, was "_Levicorpus!_"

Severus suddenly began floating upwards. The feeling of no longer touching the ground was a strange and frightening sensation. But it wasn't over at that. The charm James was using turned Severus upside down and shook him, like a muggle bully stealing a muggle child's lunch money. It was a horrible feeling, and people had begun to gather round, pointing and laughing. None of them looked remotely concerned, until Lily Evans got next to James and pushed him slightly, making him loose concentration. Severus fell to the floor, and Lily ran next to him, helping him off the ground.

"Oh, how nice of you to join us, Evans." James smiled at her, but she didn't even bother to throw a comeback at him.

"Let's go, Sev." she said, and she stalked off, Severus following close behind.

Severus had seemed like a complete idiot that day. He had no idea how to stop himself hanging upside down, and it didn't help having every other first year laughing at him and pointing. Severus was sure if Lily hadn't stopped him, James would have started flipping Severus over, Severus was sure he would've thrown up if that had happened.

After that day, Severus had begun concocting his plan with even more cruel twists, however dangerous they might have been. James clearly didn't care how dangerous his pranks were, as long as they were funny, so why should Severus? It felt stupid, sinking down to James' level and acting like him, but it was the best plan Severus had got, so he headed for the Slytherin dormitories that night feeling very amused indeed, imagining all of the different things he would have liked to do to James - all the spells, curses and hexes he would have liked to perform, if only he knew how, or if only he had had enough experience to do those. He would ruin James Potter's life, and do everything to make sure he rued the day that he messed with Snape.

However, these were all just thoughts. Severus was no where near intimidating enough to make James afraid of him unless he performed the Cruciatus Curse on him, which was something Snape would never have the courage to do in a million years - if he had the courage to do it, it being illegal wouldn't matter at all to Snape after the things James had said to him. After the things James had done to him. Even if it meant a life sentence in Azkaban - It was worth it to have James put in a permanent spot in St Mungo's.

After that thought, Severus had a very amusing dream that he had done that, and managed to escape from his sentence to Azkaban. He watched James, mad from the Cruciatus Curse, be sent to St Mungos forever, unable to recognize anything at all from the world, or even able to talk, and Severus had Lily Evans, standing by his side, asking him if he felt better, now with James unable to remember anything, and Severus would laugh and say, "That little git ruined my life - All I'm doing is repaying the favor."

And after Severus said that sentence, he awoke with a huge smile on his face.

If only he could do all that...


	9. Trying To Impress Evans?

9 "Trying to Impress Evans?"

Christmas came and went, without much excitement, which was quite astonishing, considering most Christmases were full of joy and excitement. But, for neither The Marauders nor The Sly's, Christmas was just another boring excuse for a holiday, and most of them went home for it.

Soon it was Spring, and a whole new year had started. One more season until Summer - James Potter was looking forward to finally not being an annoying little firstie. Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had completely forgotten about showing the other Marauders the entrance to the Shrieking Shack through the Whomping Willow, but now that they had remember it, it was no good - Remus was off ill.

It had become something monthly for Remus to be ill for a few days. Actually, the other Marauders hadn't even noticed until Severus mentioned it in Potions one day.

"So, I notice todays a full moon." Severus said to them.

"yeah. I notice todays the day of the bath." James paused, sniffing the air, "But clearly you enjoy the smell of your BO."

Sirius stroked Severus' hair, then looked at his hand in disgust and added, "and the feeling of unwashed hair..."

The three of them laughed in unison.

"Doesn't it seem strange that your little friend doesn't show up every month on the full moon?" Severus continued, ignoring him.

James did find this quite strange, but there was no way he was going to agree with Snape, even if it was clearly obvious what they were both thinking, so instead he said, "Remus likes the full moon. He says it helps him... transform." Severus flinched slightly as this, so James, smiling, continued, "Don't go outside on a full moon. You know we don't like you, and, in another form, how easy would it be for him to hurt you? RAH!" James snarled the last part at Severus, making him flinch more obviously. All three (present) Marauders laughed loudly at this, causing Professor Slughorn to give them reproving looks.

Although at the time James didn't believe Remus could really be a werewolf, after thinking about it, it did fit. Constantly away on the full moon, not even kept in the school, it seemed... But, if so, where was he hiding, if that was the case? It was strange, really. James, although angry that Remus hadn't told them anything, decided to just ask him calmly about it when he came back, in as calm a way as he could muster that day, and just hope he wasn't in a bad mood at the time.

Severus, on the other hand, was in a very bad mood indeed. Even trying to be civilized with The Marauders hadn't worked, which just proved that they didn't care for anyone but themselves. Which made Severus feel better about the dream he had had in Autumn.

What was strange about Spring was that Peeves never seemed to disturbed anyone during it. Severus had heard the Bloody Baron talk about how he rarely ever had to "discipline" him during Spring(after looking at the Bloody Baron's robes, covered in what legend told was Helena Ravenclaw's blood and The Baron's own), Severus dismissed the idea of asking The Baron how he managed to keep Peeve's under control.

The Baron swung his sword madly, laughing and cheering, that it was hard to believe he had died such a sad death(according to legend). He had been in love with the founder of Ravenclaw's daughter, and had followed her when she had run away to Scotland, under her mother's orders. Helena refused to return The Baron's affections, so, in a fit of rage, he stabbed her. Realizing what he had done, he stabbed himself to death to join her. It was much more interesting than the Gryffindor Ghost's jacked up beheading, which he needed to reenact every Halloween, according to some of the older pupils.

Severus had felt quite pleased with himself that day, and hearing that the Gryffindor Ghost was just as annoying and laugh-at-worthy was even more of an enlightenment (he had just wished Lily Evans wasn't in that God-awful house). Earlier that day, Severus had finally completed his plans to get revenge on The Marauders - once and for all. James Potter and his entourage would never bother Severus Snape again - he didn't even have to break Wizard Law by doing this, although he was probably going to get a detention.

You see, what had spurred Severus on even more with his plan, was an occurance that had happened just after the Christmas holidays. It was in Herbology, a subject which Severus despised. They were with Professor Seedleaf, an old male teacher who was slightly deaf. As such, he completely ignored James and his "cronies" laughing and mocking Severus(he heard James refer to him a few times as Snivellus Greasy). He felt his face burn bright red. Lily Evans laughed once at one of the jokes, then looked at Severus apologetically and "Sorry". That was the last straw for him. Severus walked right up to The Marauders and said, "One more unpleasant word about me and you'll never forget the day you crossed me." Severus looked at James, fists clenched.

James didn't even flinch. Actually, quite the opposite. He turned to his friends and the three of them (Remus was still off ill, supposedly) started laughing.

"Trying to impress Evans, are you? Sorry, Sev - " he sneered, mocking Lily's name for Severus, "Scrawny, greasy-haired Slytherins aren't really her type."

"As if you'd know what my type is, Potter!" Shouted Lily, storming over to Severus. "Come on Sev, this guy isn't worth our time-"

But Severus wasn't going to leave it at that, and let James Potter win. Not thinking about what he was saying, he shouted at James, "And I never thought Pureblood's like you would have a little crush on a Mudblood. Not really your _type_, is she?"

"Sev... I-I... I can't believe you!" Lily ran off, back to Mary McDonald, and began crying on her shoulder.

Severus knew that what he said was wrong, but of course it was all James Potters fault. So he was determined that his revenge would be sweeter than 50 spoon-fulls of sugar. Severus had planned it all out, start to finish, and ways to hopefully avoid the teachers - But there was one thing to take care of first, and that was finding out exactly what Remus was doing off every full moon - was he _really _a werewolf, or were the Marauders just trying to scare him?

If he could just find out what Sirius Black had been whispering about all through lunch that day, to Peter Pettigrew. He had heard mentions of screaming and an enchanted tree - could Remus be being guarded there? He had to sneak out at some point - when, he didn't know, but he had also heard Sirius Black mention a cloak that turned people invisible. Snape had also, of course, heard of this, as it was one of legends Deathly Hallows - his wizard father had told him about this. But most wizards believed it to be myth. So maybe Sirius was just mentioning it generally, not talking about one that one of the four owned?

Severus shook his head. No, he wasn't going to steal a cloak from them. Maybe he'd say he was doing a job for Hagrid - maybe he could even offer to do one, and explore the tree when he was sure no one was watching.

Yes. That would be his plan. If he staged it perfectly, he could even blackmail James Potter into doing whatever he wanted him to do.

_Final touches, Severus. _he thought to himself. He had to make sure it was perfect. Any subtle mistakes and he was done for.


	10. Remus' Secret

10 Remus' Secret

"So, Peter - you said something about a tree that attacks people before Hallowe'en? Care to show it me - I'd not mind setting it on Snivelly." James was saying, as the three of them sat together in the Great Hall. Peter, who usually would have given anything to be taken notice of like this, glanced at Sirius with a look of horror. Peter didn't want to go anywhere near that tree, and Sirius completely understood why. He wasn't all too glad about going near it, but at least he had an idea of what to say. "What about Remus? surely we should wait for-"

"Well, Remus can go steal Merlin's beard for all I care. Whatever Remus is doing, it isn't as important as getting revenge on Snivellus. You, Peter, are going to show me that tree, if it's the last thing you do."

James was in a bad mood for the rest of lunch - neither Peter or Sirius dared to speak to him, and, quite strangely, Peter didn't eat very much. The biggest eater of The Marauders seemed to have lost his appetite from when they had left Potions, because he was constantly complaining then that he needed to eat. James, however, seemed to be eating enough to feed everyone else in the Hall, and very roughly as well - He ripped every last bit of meat violently from a chicken drumstick, guzzled down every cup of pumpkin juice he poured in one go, and completely destroyed his piece of apple pie. Neither Peter or Sirius dared to ask James what was wrong - usually they would all wait until he calmed down before speaking again - so, other than the sounds of James' food mauling, they sat in silence at the end of the Gryffindor table.

Sirius was the first one who dared to talk first. On their way back to the common room, he decided the safest bet was to mention the tree again. "So, you still got the cloak James? I figure we can all hide under it - it's fairly big - and sneak out to investigate. When we get there, on 3, we all shout "stupefy" - its a stunning spell i picked up - and leg it towards the entrance of the Shrieking Shack, deal?"

James sighed. He wanted to see the tree, he couldn't hide that. "Okay. But if it doesn't work, I'm never trusting either of you again, got that?"

Peter sniggered uncomfortably and said, "Of course, if you get hit by a Whomping Willow, you aren't really going to be able to do that, right?"

He stopped in the hallway, turned to Peter and gave him a cold, penetrating look. Peter stopped laughing. Both Peter and Sirius nodded, not daring to say anything else.

On the night they took James' to the Whomping Willow, it seemed his temper had worsened. He was in an awful mood with everyone, and Lily Evans, although insisting she didn't like any of The Marauders and was just being nice, kept asking him what was wrong, which seemed to anger James even more. It seemed even Lily, who was crying in the girls bathroom all day after what Snape had said about her, wasn't capable of being in this much of a phase about anything.

"Sirius! You just stood on my toe!" Peter cried in as much of a whisper as he could muster, after about a minute of trying to get down the staircase.

"I hate to break it to you, Peter, but we've pretty much all been stepping on each others' toes since the start." Sirius replied, putting his hand over Peter's mouth to stop his whimpering being heard.

"Will you two shut it? If we get caught because of you, I swear I'll-"

James stopped talking. Sirius and Peter raised their heads to follow James' gaze and saw Filch, chasing Peeves around on a staircase nearby. Thankfully the staircase moved him away from them, and they could continue, however none of them talked until they got out of the castle.

Once they reached the Whomping Willow, Peter started whimpering again.

"Oh shut _up_, Peter, your toe is less important than- t-t-than.." James raised his head to see the whole of the Whomping Willow. It really did look like anyone's worst nightmare - A tree that could grow out of the ground anywhere and come to attack them. "What the hell is that?" James screeched, now apparently carefree as to whether they were heard or not, although Peter found the thought of being found by Hagrid scarier than Professor McGonagall.

"Shut up, James! It's just a tree. And we have a plan..." Sirius told him, apparently the most calm of them all. Sirius took out his wand, and continued, "On three?"

The other two obediently took out their wands, too.

"One... Two... Three!" Sirius yelled, and all at once they shouted, "_Stupefy_!"

All except for Peter. His words stumbled, and, as the other two ran to the trap door, Peter stood there, half covered with the Invisibility Cloak, trembling. The tree would be coming back to it's senses (since it apparently _had _senses) and attack Peter.

"C'mon, Pettigrew, you idiot!" James hissed, but Peter still stood there. Soon the tree would come back, and if Peter was hit they would definitely be busted. Sirius ran out from where they were standing, grabbed Peter's arm and ran as fast as he could with him in tow to James. The tree was now up. It started bashing at any ground it could detect movement - it seemed to be pretty miffed that it had been Stunned twice now, and attacked anything and everything. James opened the trap door, and as they reached it, the three of them jumped in, just as a branch scathed a thin but deep mark in Peter's forearm.

"Owwww!" Peter shrieked, as blood gushed out of the cut. They were now inside the Shrieking Shack.

"Shut up Peter! I have had it up to here with you and your-" James started to shout at Peter, but Sirius stopped him, pointing to something sat in the corner of the Shack.

"Guys... I... I think we've found out why that tree was planted..."

Sitting in the corner, thankfully sleeping, was what seemed to be a wolf, yet also resembled a man. It was actually sitting like a man, yet it's face was distinctively a wolf.

"Is that-?" James started.

"A werewolf." Sirius finished for him in a very certain tone.

"Doesn't it kind of look like Remus?" James laughed, "Look, you can see the markings right here... Remus has two scars here, right?"

Sirius suddenly realized something very important. "Remus is off every full moon... This werewolf wasn't here when Remus was here... Yet it is now... You guys! This doesn't just look like Remus - I'm betting it is Remus."

Peter gawped at this, and stopped complaining about his cut. However, James' reaction was completely different.

"Nice! We have a werewolf in our group!" James laughed. "Can we poke him?"

James was reaching out his finger to poke the wolf, when Sirius shouted, "NO!" James stopped an inch from it.

"Werewolves are mental when they're in wolf form. Remus was looking them up - I'm guessing he has no idea what he does when he's a wolf. If you wake him, chances are he won't have any friends anymore - He'll have eaten us all!"

Peter resumed his whimpering again once Sirius had said this.

"S-suppose he has Snivellus..." James laughed uncomfortably, but Sirius gave him a warning look that told him that was enough.

As they exited the Whomping Willow, they recovered themselves with the cloak, which was still partially draped over Peter, and headed back to the castle.

"I was only joking, Sirius. Don't need to get so angry." James' sulked.

"I'm as carefree as you when it comes to joking, Sirius, but not about my own life, thank you very much."

They returned to their dormitories that evening without any hassle at all... It actually felt quite odd, and James thought it had been too easy. Something must have been going off... But he wasn't going to worry about that now. He put the Invisibility Cloak into his trunk and changed into his pajamas, snuggling into his warm bed. Each of The Marauders went to sleep without any worries as well, and Peter, who had bandaged his cut with a first aid kit they had stolen from a clumsy boy called Frank Longbottom, appeared to have stopped whimpering.


	11. Plots

11 - Plots

Another week came and went, without any hassle, and it became very peculiar. Everyone seemed distant from each other, even in the Common Rooms, and it seemed quite strange for only The Marauders to be the only ones in cahoots. They found out quite soon after the events of the past week. Sooner than they expected, actually.

Remus returned that week. It seemed he looked incredibly shabby as usual, but Sirius understood now - How would _anyone _look if they'd been a werewolf for the last week or so? James, however, wasn't as happy with Remus.

"Well, seems _someone _forgot to tell us he was a half-breed..." James spoke loudly as Remus returned to them. "Wonder when he was going to tell us that? I'm betting on never."

Remus sighed. They had found out then?

"Listen, okay. I didn't mean to-" Remus started.

"I know, you didn't mean to... but you still did! And that's not what we expected from a Marauder, Remus."

"What _are _you expecting from us, James?" Peter stuttered nervously.

"How many times do I have to tell you to _shut your bloody mouth_?" James shouted at Peter as quietly as he could.

"Listen, all of you. I didn't mean to do that, and I know it wasn't right, and I should have told you anyway, but..."

"Hang on, I'm lost. I thought we _were _on about you not telling us?" Sirius butted in, a confused expression on his face.

"No, we were talking about-" Remus began, but Professor McGonagall soon answered their questions.

"Excuse me, boys and girls, but I would like none of you to leave your Common Rooms, unless it's for class or for food. It seems their is a werewolf, lurking in the Forbidden Forest. It has recently attacked one of our students - just last night, actually. Dumbledore has taken care of this matter - it was Stunned by all of the Head of Houses last night, which is quite a force as many of you know. By all means, you are not allowed in the Forbidden Forest, or outside of the Castle for anything without being accompanied by an adult."

She left, a look of shock over her face.

Peter, Sirius and James turned to look at Remus, identical looks of horror as they glanced at Remus.

"Wait, so... None of the teachers know your a werewolf? Not even Dumbledore?" Peter asked, stuttering.

"Of course they know. Dumbledore's having them say all of that "Forbidden Forest" stuff because it's better than saying it was one of the students. Most of the students have guessed this already, though. It's pretty hard to survive in the Forbidden Forest, no matter what you've got with you. Most of the students have guessed it already, though - Well, the older students are spreading it round anyway. It's what's keeping everyone quiet - no one want's to accidently say something insulting about the werewolf incase that person hears them, so no one's saying anything."

"I bet it's that Malfoy. Death-Eater-in-Training, he is."

"Nah, Avery's my guess - It would've happened before if it was Malfoy, right? Plus he's a prefect - He would have had to be on patrol at the time. No way he could have done it."

"Mulciber, then. You see how he looks at Mary MacDonald - like he wants to do the Killing Curse on her, if only he knew how. Not sure why though, she's really nice, right?"

The Marauders continued conversations like this, pretending to place bet's on who it was so that people wouldn't find it suspicious. If it wasn't Remus, they'd still be doing this, only they would be doing it for real, so it was natural for them and they didn't draw attention. Even after less than a year of going to Hogwarts, The Marauders were the kind of people who wouldn't be moved by danger or shocking news, and would instead play detective and figure out the supposed "case". The only person who found The Marauders at this point suspicious was Severus Snape.

"Well, Remus returns, just after an attack - a little suspicious, don't you think?" Severus had decided to interrogate them one day during Potions class.

"Not really." James said, not taking his eyes - the most deceiving thing about him - from his cauldron.

"You know what I find suspicious though?" Sirius asked, looking around at the other Marauders, "Doesn't Snivelly look _greasier_ than usual?"

The other Marauder's looked at him, squinting slightly, as if studying him carefully.

"Oh, wait, just my eyes - it's not possible for him to look greasier."

The four of them burst out laughing, until Professor Slughorn came over and said, "Well, boys, unless you've finished your potions and are sure you've done them correctly, don't interrupt my class, please."

The four of them bowed their heads in fake-shame - it also helped to stiffle their laughter - until he had turned his back.

"What a downer - it was only a joke!" James was saying as they left Potions that day.

"Yeah, I mean, we hadn't knocked over Snivelly's cauldron or anything." Peter laughed, as usual trying to get attention from the others.

"Not a bad idea, Pettigrew - You've proven your use to this group." James patted him on the back, before unmistakably wiping it on Peter's cloak. "That will be your job, next Potions class - good luck to you!"

Sirius and James laughed, as if the idea of Peter doing it correctly was hilarious. Remus just gave Peter an apologetic look and shrugged.

Along with The Marauder's concocting plans, Severus was also thinking up one - One that would make The Marauder's bow down in fear toward Severus, and stop calling him "Snivellus" for a change. And he had the help of his fellow Slys, Avery, Mulciber, Rosier and Lestrange, to help him.

"Hey, Evan!" Severus called in the Slytherin common room one night, "You want to help me get revenge on those God-awful Marauders? Help me, and next time I get a chance, I'll buy you 4 cauldron cakes."

"5." Rosier bartered, "And a chocolate frog."

"Rosier, come on, revenge on The Marauder's is sweeter than a life-times supply of cauldron cakes!"

Rosier pondered this, and eventually replied, "Fair enough. I still want those 4 cauldron cakes, though. A deals a deal from the moment it's spoken, right?"

Severus sighed. "Fair enough. _If _the plan goes well."

"You're one sly Sly, Severus. Hey - that's weird..."

"Can we just start planning, please, Rosier?"

"Fine." He sat down next to Severus, and began to think - what would annoy the Marauders the most, more than anything else in the world? "I've got it!" He shouted out, after a moments thought.

"Well go on then, spit it out. What's your plan?"

He whispered the plan into Severus' ear, and waited for his reaction.

"Isn't that what gets you into Azkaban?"

"Oh, please - It's not a curse, for Merlin's Sake! You might get detention, though - but I have a way out of that, too." Rosier smirked, an evil glint in his eye.

It was risky, but what other choice did Severus have? This was the best he'd got - So why not? "Fine, I'll do it. But if I get detention-"

"No cauldron cakes, right?" Rosier moaned. He desperately wanted those cakes.


	12. Rosier's Plan UPDATED

12 Rosier's Plan

So, both The Marauders and The Slys had plans up there sleeves - James and Severus of course leading those plans. It had reached June - they had just over a month left to stage both plans and get their revenge. Of course, neither group knew anything about the other's plan - Lily would have tipped Severus off on The Marauders plans (they spoke at normal volume in the Gryffindor Common Room, since no one was going to stop a plan against the Slytherins) had she not still been mad at him for calling her a Mudblood. So, she sat quietly nearby them, listening in to their conversation with as much subtleness as she could.

The Slytherins were the first to stage their plan. At the start of July, there was a full-moon, and so Remus was off "ill" again. This was the perfect, and probably only, chance that The Slys would get to stage their act, and so, naturally, they took it. There were two parts to their plan, and the first part had to be done as quick as possible, before the full-moon passed. It had only been known to them that someone in the forest was attacking pupils, and, with Severus' idea and The Marauders' open minds, they had asked Lily Evans (or, more like asked Erin-Lee to ask her) to do something extremely risky for them. Erin, who, naturally being a Hufflepuff, was unbiased towards each group, had agreed to ask her, although Severus had insulted Lily. As it turned out, Avery was on good terms with Erin - apparently, they were cousins, who had gotten along well since they were younger.

"All I'm asking her to do is take something from James' suitcase? An old, moth-eaten cloak, right?" Erin confirmed on the night she was about to ask Lily.

"Yes. Knowing how James has gotten on Lily's nerves in the past year, she'll either do it herself or ask Frank Longbottom to - he's clumsy, but fairly sly when it comes to plans." Avery replied.

"Got it. And if she says no?"

"Then you ask Frank to. Either way, it'll work just fine as long as the person taking it doesn't get caught."

"And how will you make sure they don't?"

Erin had a worried, and slightly confused, look on her face. Avery just smirked.

"Trust me. Tell the person who steals it to put it on once they have it at hand, and come to the Hufflepuff common room - they won't come if they know it's to help us. Tell them to knock three times fast, and once you hear it, get under the cloak and take them back to their dorm. Then you come to our common room, I'll take you back to yours, and we can commence the plan."

"Isn't it all a little too complicated? I mean, couldn't you have done something a lot easier?"

Avery smirked again.

"Trust me. If everything goes according to plan, it'll all be worth it."

Erin did as Avery had instructed her. Lily, it turned out, liked a bit of risk, and did exactly what she was told to, even sneaking into the boy's dorm without anything to cloak her at all. She was just as sneaky as Frank was, and being less clumsy helped a lot when it came to trying not to wake James. She took the cloak and walked toward the Hufflepuff common room. She knocked three times, as fast as she could while still making the sound distinguishable as three knocks. Erin opened the hole and stepped outside. Lily pushed a hand out of the cloak to signal where it was, and got under it.

"So it was an invisibility cloak..." Erin whispered in astonishment, "I wondered why I have to take you back while you're still under this, but now it makes more sense."

"Yeah. Now let's go, before someone notices you're gone too long." Lily replied.

"Right."

They walked back across the turning staircases to the Gryffindor common room, and Mary McDonald, who Lily had asked to open the hole for them, arrived as they once again knocked three times just next to where the portrait of the fat lady was.

"Good night!" Erin whispered as Lily got out of the invisibility cloak and went to the dormitories. She waved to Erin, as the portrait hole closed and Erin set off to meet Avery outside the Slytherin common room.

After Avery had taken Erin back to the Hufflepuff common room, the plan could finally commence. Avery, Rosier and Severus under the cloak (it turned out only 3 could fit, and Mulciber was too bulky, Lestrange not at all interested, and after all, Avery was the only one on good terms with Erin, and Rosier and Severus were the ones to think it all up.

They went into the Gryffindor boys dorm that night. They had a few ideas of what they were going to do, but they started off quite simple - poking James with a stick. After a few prods, Rosier began to blow in his ear, yet still nothing. They decided there was only one thing for this case. Severus got out his wand, and muttered, "_Retearo._"

As he muttered, he traced, in the air, a sort of cut in James' cloak and skin. It wasn't a thick cut, just a slight one that would sting just enough to wake him up. And, like planned, he did wake up.

"Wha-at?" he groaned, placing his glasses on his face to see who it was. But, naturally, he didn't see anything. Avery then got down on all fours and made some quick, animal-like footsteps, and James looked extremely startled. He arose from his bed, and went over to poke Sirius. _Just as expected, _Severus thought to himself.

"Hey, Sirius! I think _the wolf _got in."

"Yeah, so? It's not like- wait, what?"

"Well done, Merlin! Nice to see you're as smart as you look. Come on, let's go check it out!"

"If it is _the wolf_, are you really sure you want do do this?"

"Of course! It is _the wolf_, after all. He won't really do anything, right?"

Their conversation was quite confusing. It was as if they were speaking code, saying "the wolf" all the time, but then again, it would make perfect sense for them to be talking about a wolf, especially in this circumstance, after they had suggested during their "who did it?" conversations that it could have been a werewolf. So why would they be talking code if they were making it so obvious what they were actually talking about?

Avery motioned for Severus and Rosier to follow him, and they all left the dormitories and headed for the forest, trying to sound like a wolf on all fours (not very easy with 3 people). They knocked a few things over on the way, sorts of things a wolf would be within reach to knock over, trying to keep the lead but making it obvious which way they were going.

"Come on, I think I heard something this way!" Severus heard James mutter.

"Don't we need your invisibility cloak, James?" Sirius replied, although he didn't seem afraid in his tone of voice.

"Yes, but- I can't actually find it..."

"Strange..." Sirius mumbled to himself.

Once they were out of school, after watching Sirius and James avoiding the teachers roaming the halls that night by hiding behind suits of armor and in empty classrooms, they hid behind a tree. Severus pulled out his wand, stuck his head out from the cloak so his vision wasn't blurred by it (since while wearing it, you could still see it and everything underneath it), and, pointing his wand at the ground next to James, he muttered, "Redondo."

It was quite a dangerous spell, because it was usually used to blow up solid objects, but Severus managed to control it well. James went flying, landing on the roots of the Whomping Willow.

Severus, Avery and Rosier held back their laughter, although it became even harder to when they saw the look on James' face.

"S... Sirius! H-help me! I'm falling in!"

It only became apparent to them that they were in trouble when James fell in between the roots of the tree. Sirius ran to where James had disappeared, and soon, he was out of sight, too.

Avery and Rosier fell right over laughing at James' face, completely unaware of the trouble they could all get into had they been spotted. They had never expected such a turn of events, yet it made scaring Sirius and James all the more fun.

"Come on, you guys," Rosier said, catching his breath and wiping tears of laughter from his left eye, "Wouldn't it have been funny if you hit James' foot with the charm instead of the ground?"

But Avery wasn't ready to leave yet. "One more thing..." he muttered, covering himself back up with the invisibility cloak. "Wait until they get back outside."

He ushered them towards a nearby tree, and they waited for Sirius and James, leaping straight out of the trees roots and screaming madly, before Avery pointed his wand right at Sirius.

Avery cleared his voice as quietly as possible, before beginning to shout the puppeteer's curse, "_Lignot_-"

A rather horrible sight stopped him. Something that looked like a small, thin wolf emerged from the tree, and ran after James and Sirius. James, quivering, turned to face the awful beast, before shouting, "_Petrificus Totalus!_" as fast as he could, flicking his wand in several directions. In all of the directions, the trees shook, and several birds resting in them flew out, some even falling to the ground, as if completely immobile. The beast, along with the birds, fell to the ground, unable to move even the tiniest fraction. Sirius and James, realising something (although Avery, Rosier and Severus were unsure of what), quickly picked up the beast and carefully pushed it back down the roots of the tree. Then, looking at each other with utter shock and amazement, they ran straight back for the castle.

"Well that was... odd." Rosier said, looking at the tree roots with an astonished expression. "Well, let's go, then."

"Are you kidding, Evan?" Avery turned to look at Rosier, sniggering slightly, as if he was mad. "We're checking that wolf-thing out if it gets us expelled!"

"Actually, um, Avery? We have the invisibility cloak. The people in danger of being expelled are James and Sirius." Severus added.

"Yes... It is quite odd, actually, that they weren't spotted. Guess Hogwarts is really going down-hill with the security. And with that attack I thought they'd take it all seriously for a change." Avery sniggered to himself.

"Avery? You're acting like you've been at Hogwarts for years..." Rosier said, looking at Avery with a dazed, dumb expression.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess it is my first year... Well boys, we should leave that for another night. Let's just go back to the dorms."

Avery began to walk, pulling the cloak slowly off Severus and Rosier. Not wanting to end up in detention, the two of them quickly caught up to Avery, and they all walked back towards the castle.


	13. The First Goodbye

13 - The First Goodbye

After the horrible event that had taken place around the Whomping Willow, Sirius Black and James Potter had taken to spending most of their free time in the Gryffindor common room. They had decided getting revenge on the Slys was going to have to wait until next school year - before they had even realized it, it was their last week at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As they sat in the common room, on their final day at Hogwarts, calmly playing Wizards chess, their bags all packed and sitting in their dormitories, waiting to be picked up and taken on to the train the next day, Lily Evans entered, looking at James with complete disgust, beyond any words.

Yet, being her, she still had to say something.

"I can't believe on your last day at Hogwarts all you're going to do is play Wizards chess!" She scolded them with her words, as if they were children who'd just ruined a family party.

Sirius looked up at her as if she was mad. "And what about you? Spending your last day shouting at us like our bloody mother!"

Lily glared at him. "I'll have you know I've been spending my last day in the library, looking up some of the spells we're going to be learning next year." She placed a ton of books she'd been carrying onto the table, smiling smugly.

"So, basically you've wasted your last day, too?" Sirius replied.

"This isn't _wasted_. You need to plan ahead, Sirius! It's the only way to get what you really want, and my goal is to be-"

"A Transfiguration Professor?" Sirius chuckled, looking pointedly at all the books, most of which were on Transfiguration.

"No!"

"An Auror?" James piped up, having not said something witty in days and completely losing his sense of humor.

"That's your dream, not mine, James."

"Actually, my dream is to become headmaster of Hogwarts!" James stood up, putting his hands on his hips in a victorious way. "Professor Potter! Catchy, isn't it?"

Sirius laughed, slapping James gently on the back. "Finally regained your comedic side?"

"Oh, grow up, James. You'll never become headmaster, no matter how hard you try. Might as well just give up and do some muggle job." Lily scowled.

James sat back down and shrugged. "Likewise."

Lily seemed very hurt by James' comment, and quickly scurried out of the common room as quickly as she'd entered.

"What a two-faced hag." James glared at the place where she had just been standing. "Insulting me and not being able to take it back."

"Wonder why she was so insulted though. She is a muggle-born, after all. Doesn't make much sense why it would hurt her so much." Sirius pondered this thought for a second, but soon became bored and returned to their game of Wizards' chess.

"So, we've prepared everything for our revenge - Too bad we didn't get to stage it this year, huh?" James sighed, as the four of them sat on the Hogwarts Express, not wanting it to return to Kings Cross anytime soon. _I can't believe our first year went by so quick..._ he thought to himself, wondering whether he'd see his friends again before September. Sirius quickly answered this thought, however.

"Hey! I completely forgot with all that's been going on, but... You all should come visit our house sometime in the summer!"

"Seriously, Sirius?" Peter asked curiously. "Don't you live in some huge mansion house?"

"Yeah. Your point?" Sirius looked at Peter with a cold glare for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "You should've seen your face then, Pettigrew! Priceless!"

"Calm down, Sirius. It might be funny for you, but not for Peter." Remus said, sterner than Professor McGonagall on one of her bad days.

"Oh, let the "dear boy" take care of himself, Lupin! The train's nearly in London, anyway. Guess as soon as it stops we'll all have officially ended our first year as... Wizards!" Sirius popped a Dr Filibuster's wet-start, no-heat fireworks he'd smuggled on to the train in a pair of some ragged jeans.

"Sirius!" Remus groaned, "If you get us told off for those, I swear to you I will-"

"Hold it, Remus. Sirius is a grown boy now. He knows what he's doing." James mocked Remus, for what seemed to be the last time until September, unless they all met up at Sirius's.

The train slowed to a halt, as Sirius, James, Peter and Remus all stuffed their faces with the remaining every-flavor beans, cauldron cakes and cockroach clusters. The four of them took their trunks and got off the train - James in front, Peter walking slowly at the back. As Sirius ran off to meet his parents, he called, "See ya! Oh, and I'll owl post you all about the details, okay?"

James, Peter and Remus also went off to find their parents, and seemed like their first fun year at school had drawn to a close - but there was still next year for even more havoc to be caused, even more secrets to unfold, and, of course, even more pranks to be played on The Slys.

**Hope you guys enjoyed it! I might make a sequel, I planned on it in the beginning, but probably not for a while, since I started way more fanfictions than I can finish off. I'm catching up on all of them, and then I'll probably post a sequel here soon! For now, though, thanks for reading, reviewing, and favouriting! :)**


	14. September Again

1 - September Again

**You'll notice this soon enough, but the year for the Marauders starts quite similar to Harry and Ron's. This was intended to make Harry and James seem similar, even in their years at Hogwarts. Don't worry, though, there's going to be plenty of original stuff in here, too. ^^**

If there was one time James was looking forward to school, it had to be now. Wouldn't you love school if you just happened to spend every lesson mucking about and learning new spells to use on the god-awful Slytherins that thought they ran the school? And lucky for James, they had a plan.

Over the summer, James had visited one of his friends, Sirius Black, who had already come up with about a dozen different scenarios of what they could do to The Slys; Remus had his common sense and logic for which spells to use; Peter was good for taking any blame if needed (they hadn't actually told him this yet, though); and James had the perfect mind to put everything they had together. Which of course meant that they were unstoppable.

This year was going to be excellent.

"Oi, James mate! Come here!"

It was September 1st, and he was waiting at Kings Cross station, on Platform 9 and 3/4. James turned to see his two best friends - accompanied by Peter Pettigrew - waving and smiling at him. James returned the waves and walked over to them, grinning.

"What's the dumb face for, eh? You look like you just found out you were a squib or something!" Sirius laughed, punching James gently in the arm.

"You wish, Sirius. I wouldn't beat you so badly in classes otherwise!" He replied, cockily, and the two of them broke into laughs.

"Well, while it's oh so fun to watch you two mess around, I've been reading over our plan and making it a lot more logic." Remus cut in, in his "all-knowing" tone.

"Guys, the train's here-"

"James - blowing up Avery isn't an option, no matter how fun it might sound." Remus continued.

"Can't we use the cruciatus curse on him and make him blow himself up, then?" James pleaded, eyes glinting hopefully.

"You do that James. Just don't expect me to come visiting you in Azkaban."

"Cheeky git!"

"Hey, uh, guys?"

"Well, those dementors are creepy."

"Ooh, Remmy's scared of an ickle shadow?"

"Shut up, Sirius, you find them scary as much as I do."

"Yeah, right, you tell yourself that."

"Guys! The train just left!" Peter shouted. How many times were they planning on ignoring him?

"What?" The three of them shouted back in unison.

"I tried to tell you guys it was here, but you just-" Peter tried to justify himself, but James cut in.

"So speak up! Bloody hell, Peter, you aren't 6 years old!"

"Blaming Peter isn't going to change anything, James. Furthermore he has a reason."

"Stick up for petty Pettigrew, why don't you, Remus?" Sirius muttered, scowling at him.

"Well, blaming him isn't going to get us any closer to Hogwarts, is it?"

Remus returned the scowl.

"Fine." Sirius gave it up, looking around at the rest of them. "Anyone got a plan?"

James smirked.

"I thought you'd never ask. I have one - and it's completely foolproof."

"Well, go on then, spill it." Remus growled, slightly annoyed he wasn't the one to think the plan up for once.

* * *

><p>"This is mental..."<p>

"Shut up, Remus, like you had a better plan. At least James here could think up something."

Sirius and Remus were still bickering. They'd evolved into some kind of married couple, it seemed.

James' plan was indeed, however, mental. Sirius and James had packed a broomstick each for the year, hoping to get into the Quidditch team. They'd just managed to fit two on each broom - and they were now flying around somewhere in the English countryside, searching for the castle. They didn't know how far exactly they were from the train - they only hoped they weren't too late.

"So how exactly are we going to find a castle that's enchanted to look like a load of ruins?" Remus stated, smirking. _What James' plan lacks is logic._

"I thought a spoff like you would have researched this first year. The enchantment only works on muggles. We aren't muggles, if you didn't figure that out already." Sirius smirked back, returning every cocky look.

"Shut it! And watch where you're steering, Sirius!" James shouted, as Sirius frantically dodged an oncoming bridge.

"Come on, stop arguing for one second. Let's get prepared to go to Hogwarts and beat those bloody Slys!" James shouted, and all four cheered.

_"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts, teach us something please. Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees..."_

"Second years, huh?"

"Isn't it exciting, Erin? We're not going to be the youngest anymore, and we'll be taught slightly more advanced spells!"

Sitting in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, there was no one more chuffed than Lily Evans.

"Sure. Getting detentions from Professor Slughorn and being treat like you drank unicorn blood because your cousin is Avery." Erin replied, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, come on Erin. Avery is a bit of a, well, patronus caster." Lily giggled. Erin sighed at her try at self-censorship.

Erin turned to look out the window. There she saw four boys she never would have expected to see flying around outside the train.

"Hey, aren't they...?"

The Marauders.

Erin rushed to open the windows of the train, and called out to the boys.

"Hey, James, Sirius, Remus! Oh, yeah, and Peter!"

She gestured them in, grinning widely. Lily turned and looked out the opposite window, muttering something more foul than "patronus caster".

The two broomsticks flew in, crashing into the train corridor. Erin helped each of them up, laughing uncontrollably.

"Jeez, you guys, if you want to make the Quidditch team you'll have to learn to land properly."

"I want to be a beater, not a seeker. I shouldn't be landing for any reason!" Sirius retorted.

"Oh, okay. Sirius Black with a bat - good idea! Not."

"She has a point, Sirry..." James added, using a nickname they'd come up with in the Summer.

"Sirry? Alright then, Jam Jam!"

"Oi Sirry, don't forget Remmy."

The three of them burst into laughter.

"You are such girls." Erin teased, returning to read the latest issue of Witch Weekly.

"Hey, what about me? Petey? Anyone?"


	15. Confusion

Confusion

"This is all we have to do?"

"Yep."

"And it's foolproof?"

"Enough."

"There's not a single catch?"

"Nope."

"Alright then. Let's do this."

"_Confundo_!"

The bludger the boys had stolen from the Slytherin quidditch team to practice on instantly started flying around as Peter and Sirius released it from the box it was kept in, as per usual. However it refused to hit anything. The complete opposite of what a bludger should have been doing. Dodging everything it came close to, then becoming confused and trying to hit the same spot but dodging it again - it was definitely one confused ball.

James lowered his wand and let the bludger fall back into the box with a sigh, where Sirius and Peter lay to tighten the chains around it to hold it back in. "Look, Remus-" He turned to the boy stood behind him, "This is great and all to see what we can do with a bludger, but it's not a person. And it's certainly not Snivellus."

"You can still use the same-" Remus began to reassure him, but James interrupted.

"But we don't have a clue what it's going to actually do to Snivellus, do we?"

James sounded exasperated as he tried to explain to Remus that Severus Snape wasn't going to start flying around dodging everything in his path like the bludger had done.

Sirius stood up, his face thoughtful. "You're not implying that we should practice on a person, are you?" The corners of his mouth curled into a smirk and he walked over to Remus and James, leaving Peter to lock the Slytherin Quidditch box. "But, who should we practice on?" He turned back towards the chubby boy, trying to suppress a laugh.

"You aren't serious, are you?" Remus asked, a look of horror on his face. "Um, no pun intended." He quickly added.

"Oh, I'm dead serious." He replied. "Hey, Peter, get over here, will you?"

Peter ran to them - or waddled, really - beaming. His moment to be useful had come!

"No, Sirius. Don't you dare." Remus threatened, reaching for the wand in his pocket and gripping it tight. _If he even utters "Con-", I swear I'll-_

"Oh, relax, Remmy, we aren't going to hurt him. The full moon to you and the Confundus charm to Peter are a little different. Don't be so moon- I mean, moody." James laughed, leading Sirius and Peter off to a bigger area without many obstacles. "Hey, actually, no - Moony." He laughed again, and Remus sighed. Looked like he'd got a new nickname.

"James! Come on you guys, you can't-"

"_Confundo!_" The two boys shouted, ignoring Remus completely. Despite not wanting to use Peter like The Marauders' puppet...

Remus _was_ kind of curious to see what would happen.

Peter - who had been told to start on his Transfiguration homework before they used the spell - suddenly felt his thoughts become muddled, and he started to write the Potions essay they had been set by Professor Slughorn, before realizing that he wasn't supposed to be doing that and starting to examine a nearby plant, in some reenactment of a Herbology lesson. He went through each subject, trying to figure out exactly what homework he was supposed to be doing and then becoming more and more exasperated as he realized he was doing the wrong thing. James and Sirius found it hysterical, but Remus, on the other hand, wasn't so amused.

"Come on, you guys, this isn't even funny. If he hands that in he's going to be failed, and he'll probably also confuse the professor he hands it in to." Remus interjected.

"Moony, not to ruin all your attempts and everything, but one - I'm pretty sure you're the only one of us who actually cares all that much for his homework grades, and two - there's no known counter curse, so I guess we might as well enjoy it until it wears off." Sirius explained, before turning back to watch Peter and his imitation of Professor Sprout.

Remus sighed. He really wished he hadn't suggested anything to the other Marauders.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Lily!" Erin called out, waving to her friend from across the library. Lily was sat on her own at a table, once again, doing some boring Potions essay the Gryffindor second years had been set. She walked over to join her, as Lily looked up at her and smiled, waving back.<p>

"Hi Erin." She gave her a curious look, as Erin rooted through the pile of books she'd brought into the library. "Since when did you carry around that much stuff with you?"

"Oh, this?" Erin rolled her eyes. "It's all Avery's. He was practicing for Quidditch trials and fell off his broom, so I'm in charge of taking it to the Infirmary for him." She laughed. "Of course, I'm not his slave just because we're cousins. And he was the idiot flying around on a broomstick when he wasn't allowed to be. He was gloating about his Nimbus 1500, serves him right."

She took out her quill and began to doodle in _Hogwarts: A History_, when Lily snatched it from her and stroked the pages caressingly. Erin rolled her eyes and raised an eyebrow at Lily.

"Well, if you're going to doodle in a book, can you doodle in one I don't- I mean, Avery likes?" Lily asked, quickly placing the book back underneath a few others and trying to hide the fact she'd just been petting it. "Like, _Quidditch Through The Ages _or something?"

Erin beamed at her in return. "Good idea! And I won't have _somebody_ trying to stroke them all and ruining _my_ ideas." She teased, before searching through the pile again for the book her cousin had been practically clinging to all summer. "Aha! _Quidditch Through The Ages_ by Kennilsworthy Whisp. Perfect! And it's all new and shiny, too."

She opened it up to a random page and started to read it aloud. "'_We are so accustomed these days to the fact that every Wizarding household in Britain owns at least one flying broomstick that we rarely stop to ask ourselves why.'_ Because we're all stereotypical wizards and witches?" She snorted.

"The perfect imitation of what muggles expect." Lily agreed, thinking of her older sister Petunia and her cruel insults. Lily wasn't a 'freak'. There were plenty of other wizards in Britain, and Hogwarts proved it to her.

Erin wrote "_Besides the Avery's because that one got snapped_", just to run it in his face, and then flipped a few more chapters to the 'Balls' section and laughing. "Look at these. 'Ancient Quaffles'. '_Straps and finger holes have become unnecessary_'. The Quaffle is pretty unnecessary - if you don't make 16 goals with it before the other team's seeker catches the snitch you've lost."

"I guess. But then it would be one boring game. It'd just be 'follow the snitch and dodge the bludgers'. The teams would be way smaller."

Erin shrugged. "Better than how obsessed people get over it these days, though." She sighed as she placed the book back underneath the pile. Doodling through Avery's books hadn't been as funny as she expected.

At that moment, 3 Gryffindor second-years walked in, arguing like crazy. "Oh come on, Moony, it's not my fault the idiot handed in that dumb essay!"

"If you hadn't put that spell on him he wouldn't even have written it. And can you stop calling me that?"

"I suppose you'd prefer 'Moody Git With No Sense Of Humor Who Hates The Moon', but we had to shorten it somehow."

Erin smiled. It wasn't at the Marauders' - minus Peter - argument or thinking about what they might have done, but at how useful they could be to her. "Hey! Remus, James, Sirius!" She called out, waving them over. Lily hung her head, resting it on her homework and sighing, but Erin ignored her.

"What is it, Chalk?" James asked, being the first to approach the girls. He looked curiously at the pile of books and a smirk appeared on his face. "Not carrying around Evans' books for her, are you? I'd be more than happy to take that job off your hands."

"No, James, I'm not, but you can take the job. See, these are Avery's - I'm supposed to take them over to the Infirmary - but you know, carrying that many books is so tiring, and I know you won't go _vandalizing_ them or anything." Erin put extra emphasis on 'vandalizing', hoping they'd take the hint.

"Well, uh-" Remus began, but he was quickly interrupted.

"Great! Thanks, I really owe you one, you guys!" She bounded out of the library, glad to finally be rid of the books, leaving the boys and Lily to take care of them.

"Hey, Evans, you know-" James started, trying to get her to take the books instead.

"Sorry, homework." She quickly replied, not looking up from her essay as she quickly scrawled.

"But when you're finished you could-" He tried again.

"Lot's of homework."

James sighed. It looked like they had to take these books to Avery.

"Listen, you three." She sighed, finally looking up at them. "Erin gave you them for a reason - well, two reasons really. And it wasn't just that she didn't want to carry them all the way to the Infirmary. She just wanted to vandalize them to get back at Avery for getting injured and leaving her in charge of his books, but she's not really good at that sort of thing. But she knows you guys are."

Remus looked even more confused. "But she just said she trusted us because she knew we wouldn't go vandalizing them. Why would she say that if she wanted us to doodle in them?" Sirius and James nodded in agreement.

Lily laughed, but it was humorless. "Honestly, you three. Can't you pick up anything? She was dropping a hint, and you completely missed it. You'll never get girlfriends if you can't pick up a simple thing like that."

James looked offended. What did she know? They were only in second year, it wasn't like they cared about dating people yet, but maybe third or fourth year he'd get himself a girlfriend. Evans was the one who wasn't going to get a boyfriend.

"Fine. We'll take these stupid books to Avery." He grabbed the books and stormed away from the table, pulling up a chair from the furthest table away.

Lily started to worry then. She hadn't meant to offend James that much. She was hoping to put last year behind them, and it seemed he was willing to as well, but if she was going to insult him when he wasn't being mean they'd never be able to get on. _But then again, why do I care about getting along with 'Potter'?_

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry about this to those of you who are reading this, although it seems highly unlikely anyone is, but I'm no longer writing this. I've really lost my interest in the plotline, and from the looks of the reviews no one's actually reading this anymore, so I don't have any reason to continue. I thought this would be interesting, but now I see why so many fanfictions start off in fifth or sixth year. I might do a Remus x Erin fanfiction, but I'm not starting this up at a different year, because it's too cliched. Sorry, but this is the last update! Thanks to those of you who read, reviewed, or even favourited, but this is over.<strong>


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